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Library  of 
The  University  of  North  Carolina 


COLLECTION  OF 
NORTH  CAROLINIANA 


ENDOWED  BY 
JOHN  SPRUNT  HILL 

of  the  Class  of  1889 


B-   l333^t> 


TRIBUTES  TO  MY 

FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

AND 

SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE 


-i^/ 


JESSE  MERCER  BATTLE 


r  t 


^'     V,CL. 


^ 


PUBLISHERS 

The  Mangan  Press 

ST,  LOUIS,  MO. 
1911 


Copyrighted  1911 

BY 

Jesse  Mercer  Battle 


DEDICATION 

To  my  grandson,  Eugene    Battle   Smith,    and  to   my  grand- 
daughter, Margaret  Parker  Smith.     May  my  grandson 
be  as  good  and  useful  a  man  as   my  father  was, 
and  may  my   granddaughter  be   as  good  a 
wife   and   as   good  a   mother  as  my 
mother  was. 


CONTENTS 


My  Father _ 7 

My  Mother _ 53 

Born _ 60 

Childhood 63 

Looking  for  a  Job 85 

Changing  My  Occupation 89 

Another  Change 102 

Another  Change 107 

My  First  Accident 120 

Meeting  My  Future  Wife 128 

Wandering 137 

Back  to  See  My  Lady  Love  .* 170 

An  Accident  on  the  Yadkin  River 191 

The  Canvasser 200 

Success,  But  Not  Complete 220 


MY  FATHER. 

In  the  September,  1906,  number  of  the 
<^Wake  Forest  Student"  I  find  the  following 
statement  concerning  my  father.  I  have  been 
told  that  it  was  written  by  Professor  Collier 
Cobb,  of  Chapel  Hill,  North  Carolina.  It  con- 
tains a  mere  outline  of  a  very  small  part  of  the 
services  rendered  to  the  Baptists  by  my  father. 
Doctor  William  Hooper,  a  life  long  friend, 
w^rote  a  more  extended  notice,  giving  more  data 
and  more  detail;  this  obituary  notice  was  sent 
to  the  Biblical  Recorder,  a  Baptist  paper,  pub- 
lished in  Raleigh,  N.  C,  and  edited  at  that  time 
by  a  Mr.  Richard  Mills.  It  is  greatly  to  be  re- 
gretted  that  this  paper  of  Doctor  Hooper  was 
lost,  misplaced  or  purposely  suppressed,  for  it 
contained  matter  of  the  greatest  importance 
concerning  my  father,  written  by  a  master 
hand  and  a  loving  friend.  At  this  time  Doc- 
tor Hooper  was  too  old  and  feeble  to  reproduce 
his  paper. 

Noting  that  the  paper  did  not  appear  in  the 
next  issue  of  the  Biblical  Recorder,  I  went 
to  its  office  in  Raleigh  and  asked  Mr.  Mills 
for  the  paper.  He  said  that  he  was  very  sorry, 
but  the  paper  was  misplaced  and  he  could  not 


8     TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

lay  his  hands  on  it  at  that  time,  if  he  found 
it  he  would  send  it  to  me.  I  never  received 
it.  The  explanation  was  easy,  I  understood 
the  situation  well.  My  father  was  no  longer 
a  Baptist,  and  the  Baptists  were  no  longer  in- 
terested in  him,  living  or  dead.  Another  rea- 
son which  had  some  weight  is  that  the  columns 
of  a  newsi)aper  or  magazine  are  w^orth  money. 
At  that  time  I  knew  so  little  about  such  mat- 
ters I  did  not  think  to  ask  what  would  be  the 
cost  of  the  space  that  Doctor  Hooper's  paper 
would  occupy.  Had  I  done  so,  I  am  almost 
certain  that  the  paper  would  have  appeared. 
I  now  give  Professor  Collier  Cobb's  paper. 

'^Elder  Amos  Johnston  Battle,  son  of  Joel 
and  Mary  P.  Battle,  was  born  at  Shell  Bank, 
Edgecombe  County,  North  Carolina,  on  the 
eleventh  day  of  January,  1805.  His  parents, 
being  of  an  influential  family  and  having  ample 
means,  gave  to  their  son  the  superior  ad- 
vantages of  a  good  education,  which  he  con- 
tinued to  enrich  by  close  study  and  extensive 
reading  during  the  whole  of  his  laborious  and 
useful  life. 

"Placed  above  the  necessity  of  manual  labor 
and  possessing  talents  of  a  High  order,  the 
world  proffered  to  him  success  and  honors  in 
the  learned  professions,  the  arena  of  politics 
and  the  emoluments  of  wealth,  all  of  which 
he  spurned  as  possessing  inferior  attractions 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  9 

to  the  sublimity  and  divine  perfections  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ. 

'••In  his  twenty-third  year,  traveling  through 
the  country  on  horseback,  from  North  Caro- 
lina to  his  plantation  in  Florida,  He  stopped  at 
a  country  church  called  Mount  Zion  in  Georgia. 
It  was  there  that  he  gave  his  heart  to  God, 
united  with  the  Church  and  was  baptized  by 
the  Rev.  Jesse  Mercer,  founder  of  the  Mercer 
University  in  Georgia. 

"Three  years  after,  having  returned  to 
North  Carolina,  he  was  ordained  to  the  min- 
istry at  a  convention  held  with  the  Baptist 
Church  at  ^Rogers'  Cross  Eoads,'  in  the  County 
of  Wake. 

"On  the  seventh  of  January,  1830,  he  mar- 
ried Miss  Margaret  Hearne  Parker,  of  Edge- 
combe County,  N.  C. 

"In  1834  he  was  pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church 
in  Nashville,  N.  C.  In  1838  and  1839  he  was 
pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  Raleigh,  N.  C. 
It  was  about  that  time  that  he  was  so  in- 
terested in  the  building  up  of  Wake  Forest 
College,  giving  largely  of  his  means  and  put- 
ting up  out  of  private  funds  a  large  and  hand- 
some building. 

"As  a  trustee  he  was  very  active.  About 
1835  he  was  elected  agent  to  collect  subscrip- 
tions,  secured  by  William   Hill  Jordan  and 


10    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

John  Armstrong.  The  Institute,  as  it  was  then 
called,  was  not  able  to  build  houses  for  the 
professors,  so  they  gave  permission  to  any 
member  who  was  able  to  furnish  the  money 
and  wait  for  reimbursement,  to  erect  such 
house. 

^^Charles  A.  Skinner  and  Amos  J.  Battle  ac- 
cepted the  proposition  and  each  erected  a 
house  and  the  trustees  gave  their  bond,  pay- 
able in  five  years. 

"The  Institute  was  crowded  with  students; 
the  rooms  were  unfurnished,  Amos  J.  Battle 
was  appointed  a  committee  of  one  to  secure  a 
sufficient  number  of  double  moss  mattresses. 
There  was  no  more  useful  member  of  the  board 
than  he.  He  ceased  to  attend  these  board 
meetings  after  1844,  as  his  time  was  devoted 
to  the  education  of  the  young  women  of  the 
Baptist  Church  There  are  trees  and  shrubs 
now  growing  there  that  he  planted  with  his 
own  hands. 

"At  the  same  time  he  was  giving  largely 
for  the  building  of  a  Baptist  Church  in  Raleigh. 

"From  Raleigh  he  went  to  Wilmington,  N. 
C,  as  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  there. 

"Within  the  first  six  months  of  his  pastor- 
ate there  he  baptized  one  hundred  and  fifty 
members  into  the  Church.  Among  them  were 
Mr.  George  R.  French,  Capt.  C.  D.  Ellis,  Mr. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  11 

I.  Peterson,  Mr.  Mitchell  and  many  others  too 
numerous  to  mention,  who  were  for  fifty  years 
afterwards  prominent  workers  in  the  Church. 

"Learning  that  the  Baptist  Church  in  Ea- 
leigh  was  about  to  be  sold  for  the  heavy  debt 
on  it,  he  gave  up  the  Wilmington  Church  and 
for  two  years  (about  1843  and  1844)  he  traveled 
over  the  State  to  raise  money  for  that  debt. 
Some  year  or  two  after  that,  feeling  that  Wake 
Forest  College  was  doing  all  that  could  be 
done  for  the  young  men  of  his  native  State, 
he  turned  his  attention  to  the  building  up  of  a 
college  for  girls.  In  the  year  1847  he  traveled 
extensively  in  the  Chowan  Association  and 
stirred  up  the  men  of  means  to  start  the  school 
in  Murfreesboro,  now  known  as  the  ^Chowan 
Baptist  Female  Institute.'  For  the  first  year 
he  was  steward  of  the  college. 

"He  was  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  Baptist 
State  Convention.  He  succeeded  William 
Roles  as  Treasurer  in  1836,  and  held  the  posi- 
tion until  1842.  He  was  also  Recording  Secre- 
tary of  the  North  Carolina  Baptist  Bible  So- 
ciey  from  1837  to  1842.  He  was  popular  and 
,  public  spirited.  During  the  Mexican  War  he 
was  chosen  chaplain  of  the  North  Carolina 
Volunteer  Regiment. 

"He  deserves  to  rank  along  with  the  noblest 
and  best  of  the  strong  men  of  his  time. 

"It  was  his  brother,  William  Horn  Battle, 


12    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

who  introduced  into  the  House  of  Commons 
the  bill  to  charter  Wake  Forest  College,  where 
the  measure  passed  with,  a  good  majority. 

^'In  1843  he  moved  to  Wilson,  N.  C,  where  he 
lived  until  his  death,  spending  his  time  travel- 
ing and  preaching  as  an  evangelist,  sometimes 
in  the  eastern  part  of  the  State,  and  sometimes 
in  the  mountains.  He  was  preaching  at  Kuth- 
erfordton  when  attacked  with  cancer  near  his 
right  eye,  from  w^hich  he  died  in  Wilson,  Sep- 
tember 24th,  1870/' 

Someone  has  said,  ^'It  is  a  good  thing  to  be 
well  born."  To  be  well  born  means  mainly  to 
have  a  good  father  and  a  good  mother,  that 
is,  each  one  must  be  healthy  of  body  and  of 
a  sound  mind.  The  healthy  body  is  free  from 
those  malignant  diseases  which  can  be  trans- 
mitted from  father  or  mother  to  their  children. 
The  sound  mind  means,  first,  a  mind  that  can 
think,  and  think  straight,  and  think  ration- 
ally, and  secondly,  it  means  a  mind  that  sees 
many  truths  that  remain  unseen  to  the  ordi- 
nary person. 

A  sound  mind  also  means  good  common 
sense,  which  is  one  of  the  most  uncommon 
things  in  the  world.  My  mother  had  the  com- 
mon sense,  that  is  the  kind  of  sense  that  is 
applied  to  the  things  of  this  world. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  13 

She  expected  and  looked     for    the    things 
that  really  come  to  pass.    But  not  so  with  my 
father.     He  always  looked  for  the  impossible. 
He  read  in  his  Bible  (Luke  xviii.  29)  '^There 
is  no  man  that  hath  left  house  or  parents, 
or  brethren  or  wife  or  children,  for  the  King- 
dom of  God's  sake  (verse  30),  who  shall  not 
receive  manifold   more  in  this   present  time, 
and  in  the  world  to  come,  life  everlasting." 
And  he  believed  this  passage  was  a  revela- 
tion from  God,  through  Jesus,  and  that  it  was 
true,   and  was   to   be   obeyed   implicitly,   and 
meant  exactly  what  it  said.     So,  as  far  as  he 
was  able,  he  obeyed  the  command  and  he  did 
forsake  his  house,  his  parents  and  his  brethren 
and  his  wife  and  his  children  for  the  King- 
dom of  God's  sake,  and  became  a  bankrupt  as 
far  as  this  world's  goods  are  concerned.     He 
became  almost  a  stranger  to  his  family  and 
he  devoted   all  his   wealth  to   God   and   His 
Kingdom  by  giving  it  away  for  churches  and 
school  purposes.     He  gave  all  his  time  to  the 
upbuilding  of  his    Church,    the    Baptist.     He 
did   literally  what   he  understood  to  be   his 
duty,  as  he  read  it  in  his  favorite  passages 
in  the  New  Testament.    He  was  not  a  fanatic, 
he  was  not  insane  on  the  subject  of  religion. 
He  simply  believed  the  picked  words  that  he 
read  were  true,  and  were  meant  to  be  obeyed, 
and  he  frequently  said  that    he    was    God's 
child,  absolutely,  and  if  he  obeyed  God's  com- 


14    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

mandments  as  given  in  the  words  of  Jesus, 
that  God  would  keep  his  promises.  Yet,  after 
giving  aw^ay  all  his  property  and  leaving  his 
family,  he  did  not  have  "manifold  more  in 
this  present  time,"  but  he  might  have  "life 
everlasting  in  the  world  to  come."  The  last 
years  of  his  life  were  made  miserable  by  pov- 
erty and  an  incurable  disease  (cancer).  No 
one  ever  doubted  his  sincerity.  All  admitted 
that  if  there  was  a  true  Christian  that  man 
was  my  father.  His  whole  life  was  devoted 
to  deeds  of  charity.  No  one  ever  came  to  him 
and  asked  for  help  and  was  turned  away  with- 
out it.  All  that  asked  him  for  help  got  it, 
all  that  w^anted  to  borrow  of  him,  obtained 
the  loan,  even  without  security.  His  money, 
his  lands,  his  negroes,  his  stocks,  his  bonds, 
his  personal  property  of  every  description 
went  as  his  free  will  offering  to  the  Church 
as  a  whole,  and  to  anyone  of  its  members 
individually,  or  to  those  who  were  not  mem- 
bers. He  just  could  not  refuse  to  do  what 
he  was  asked  to  do.  I  have  known  him  to  go 
away  from  home,  well  dressed,  with  a  good 
horse  and  buggy,  and  have  seen  him  come 
home  in  less  than  a  month  looking  like  a 
beggar,  dressed  in  the  commonest  kind  of 
clothing,  and  bringing  an  old  worn-out  saddle 
on  his  back.  He  had  given  away  his  cloth- 
ing and  bought  somebody's  old  cast  off  cloth 
ing.     He  had  sold  his  horse  and  buggy  and 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  15 

given  the  money  to  build  a  church  in  a  sec- 
tion of  the  state  where  there  was  none,  and 
had  bought  the  old  saddle  for  a  very  small 
price  and  borrowed  a  horse  to  do  his  mission- 
ary w^ork  w^ith;  and  when  his  journey  was  fin- 
ished, he  had  returned  the  horse  and  brought 
the  old  saddle  home  on  his  back  to  use  at 
some  future  time.  He  put  his  name  on  the 
back  of  some  man^s  note  as  an  endorsement, 
and  w^hen  the  note  came  due,  the  man  did  not 
have  the  money  to  pay  w4th,  and  my  father 
was  asked  to  pay,  but  he  did  not  have  the 
money  either,  and  said  so,  but  that  he  would 
pay  when  he  got  the  money.  The  man  who 
held  the  note  asked  my  father  why  He  put 
his  name  on  a  note  when  he  had  no  money, 
my  father,  in  his  guilelessness  said  he  did  it 
because  he  had  been  asked  to  do  so.  This 
answer  so  enraged  the  holder  of  the  note  that 
he  slapped  my  father's  face,  and  my  father 
deliberately  turned  his  other  cheek  and  said 
to  the  man,  "You  may  slap  the  other  cheek  if 
you  want  to."  I  have  known  many  good  men, 
but  I  have  never  seen  another  one  as  good 
as  my  father.  He  was  accessible  to  rich  and 
poor  alike.  There  was  nothing  that  he  pos- 
sessed that  he  would  not  give  away  if  some 
one  would  ask  him  for  it.  There  was  never 
a  minute,  night  or  day  that  he  would  reserve 
for  himself  or  family,  all  his  time  was  at  the 
disposal  of  any  one  that  would  come  and  ask 


16    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

for  it.  He  preached,  he  taught,  he  worked,  he 
strived  for,  he  longed  for  what  he  called  the 
'^Kingdom  of  God.''  This  kingdom  meant  to 
him  for  every  body  to  do  and  live  as  he  did  and 
lived.  He  often  said,  "He  loves  God  most  who 
serves  his  creatures  best."  This  was  the  key- 
note to  his  life.  It  was  for  this  that  he  de- 
voted his  life  and  when  his  days  were  ended 
and  we  had  laid  him  in  his  grave,  I  had  put 
on  his  tombstone  his  own  words:  "He  loves 
God  most  who  serves  His  creatures  best." 

He  was  the  only  man  that  I  ever  saw  who 
implicitly  believed  the  words  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, selected  by  himself  to  be  true  and  put 
those  words  in  practice  in  his  life.  He  preach- 
ed righteousness  and  he  practiced  what  he 
preached.  I  saw  little  of  him  in  my  young  dayvS, 
but  the  last  year  of  his  life  I  was  with  him  ev- 
ery day  and  I  must  say  it  was  a  revelation 
to  me  to  know  that  I  had  such  a  father.  I 
did  not  know  that  there  was  such  a  man  in 
the  world.  He  was  so  entirely  different  from 
any  man  I  had  ever  known.  He  was  abso- 
lutely unselfish,  his  self-denial  was  sublime. 
He  was  capable  of  giving  up  everything,  even 
to  life  itself  for  his  cause. 

His  conversation  was  reserved  but  affable 
and  lively.  He  condescended  to  mix  with  men 
of  a  lower  state.  He  never  condemned  on  first 
information,  but  always  wanted  more  knowl- 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  17 

edge  of  the  case,  and  the  men  involved.  He 
said  all  were  liable  to  err,  and  he  had  erred 
many  times  himself,  and  it  was  only  through 
a  knowledge  of  error  that  he  was  enabled 
to  find  the  right  way  and  to  escape  from  the 
sin.  He  said  without  a  body  there  would  be 
little  inclination  to  sin;  but  as  the  body  was 
the  excuse  and  the  inclination  to  violate  law, 
it  was  the  one  thing  that  should  be  watched, 
restrained  and  repressed.  That  its  needs  and 
requirements  were  only  to  be  decided  by  an 
enlightened  mind;  that  this  enlightened  mind 
and  a  cultivated  conscience  was  to  be  relied 
upon  to  map  out  a  line  of  conduct  and  the 
manner  of  living  in  order  to  fill  one's  proper 
place  in  this  world  and  to  be  prepared  for  the 
world  to  come.  "One  may  err,  but  the  most 
important  thing  in  this  life  is  to  be  just.  Sin, 
error  and  mistakes  are  a  part  of  this  world. 
No  man  or  woman  is  exempt  from  their  con- 
sequences. Ignorance  is  at  the  bottom  of 
nearly  all  the  violations  of  law.  He  who  is 
ignorant  and  violates  law  is  not  so  culpable 
as  the  one  who  is  responsible  for  the  ignor- 
ance. If  you  do  not  show  to  your  child  or 
your  neighbor,  or  his  child  the  difference  be- 
tween light  and  darkness,  then  you  are  re- 
sponsible for  the  sin,  error  or  mistake  made 
by  them  more  than  they  are,  for  you  do  know- 
that  the  act  is  wrong,  and  your  child,  neigh- 
bor and  his  child,  who  does  the  deed  in  ig- 


18    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

norance,  knows  it  not.  You  who  leave  them 
in  darkness  are  the  most  culpable,  for  it  is 
your  duty  to  teach  them,  and  the  neglect  is 
your  sin." 

So  he  taught,  he  visited,  he  w^orked,  he  ad- 
vised, trying  to  give  more  wisdom  to  the  ig- 
norant. He  knew  the  value  of  faith,  so  w^hen 
he  came  in  contact  with  one  w^ho  was  miser- 
able through  a  lack  of  it,  He  w^ould  say,  "Look 
at  the  stars  in  the  sky  at  night.  Think  you 
that  they  could  travel  on  their  orbits  with- 
out a  calamity  if  there  was  no  master  hand 
guiding  them.'' 

"How  could  you  and  I  love  goodness  and 
hate  evil  if  there  w^ere  no  consequences  fol- 
lowing our  deeds?" 

The  consequences  are  found  in  progress  or 
retrogression.  He  believed  strongly  in  the  ful- 
fillment of  God's  plans.  If  anything  seemed 
to  go  wrong,  he  said,  "God's  plans  are  too 
great  to  be  finished  in  a  day."  He  said  hate 
and  selfishness  were  at  the  bottom  of  much 
of  the  wrong  in  the  w^orld,  but  he  said,  "Hate 
is  passing  away  and  love  is  taking  its  place." 
There  are  some  men  in  the  w^orld  who  do  love 
their  enemies.  There  are  some  men  who  are 
merciful  to  their  animals.  There  are  some 
men  and  women  in  the  w^orld  who  will  nurse 
the  sick  without  pay.  They  will  even  give 
their  money  to   build   hospitals   and  asylums 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  19. 

for  the  care  of  the  sick  and  the  insane.  There 
are  some  men  and  women  who  will  give  lib- 
erally of  their  means  to  build  schools  and 
colleges  to  educate  the  young  men  and  wo- 
men when  they  have  no  children  of  their 
own.  This  he  said  was  progress,  for  it  showed 
that  the  old  injunction  to  love  your  friends 
and  hate  your  enemies,  was  passing  away. 
There  would  be  more  progress,  he  said,  when 
men  were  better  taught;  ignorance  was  at  the 
bottom  of  intolerance;  men  had  no  patience 
with  other  men,  when  they  were  ignorant;  they 
were  more  patient  as  soon  as  they  knew 
enough  to  be  so.  Those  who  had  suffered 
themselves  were  more  apt  to  help  others  who 
were  suffering.  Suffering  itself  taught  us  a 
lesson.  It  gives  us  experience,  and  experience 
is  what  life  is  made  of. 

Love  and  trust  to  our  fellowman  and  to  our 
Maker  should  drive  away  all  fear,  except  the 
fear  of  broken  law.  Some  law  is  what  we  call 
natural  law:  it  could  not  be  natural  law  un- 
less it  was  first  supernatural.  Some  law  we 
make  ourselves,  and  we  could  not  even  do 
this,  unless  we  were  first  made  by  the  super- 
natural law. 

We  obey  the  laws  as  we  know  them,  vol- 
untarily, and  sometimes  we  are  made  to  obey 
them,  when  we  are  unwilling  to  do  so.  The 
law  which  makes  water  run  down  hill  is  what 


20    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

we  call  a  natural  law,  but  it  depends  on  God 
for  its  moving  power.  The  law  which  sajs 
"thou  Shalt  not  kill/-  is  a  law  adopted  by  man 
to  protect  himself  and  his  family  from  the  in- 
sane murderer.  For  the  murderer  is  insane, 
in  the  sense  that  his  sense  and  judgment  are 
bad,  especially  bad  for  his  victims. 

And  there  is  a  law  back  of  the  insanity, 
and  this  law,  though  unknown  to  us,  is  also 
a  supernatural  law. 

The  law  which  permits  the  cancer  cell  to 
ingest  and  digest  the  cells  of  which  our  bod- 
ies are  composed,  is  also  a  supernatural  law 
that  we  do  not  comprehend. 

The  bacilli  and  bacteria,  other  cells  which 
are  taken  into  our  bodies  through  our  food, 
drink  and  the  air  we  breath,  get  their  power 
for  harm  from  the  same  God  that  we  worship 
and  call  His  name  Love. 

The  ability  we  have  to  investigate,  the  cap- 
acity we  have  to  invent  instruments  to  dis- 
cover these  microorganisms,  is  also  given  to 
us  by  the  the  same  God  that  has  made  the 
law  which  permits  these  parasites  to  prey 
upon  our  poor  bodies,  destroy  them  and  send 
them  to  the  grave,  where  another  set  of  bac- 
teria shall  ingest  and  digest  them,  and  when 
there  is  nothing  more  that  the  bacteria  of  de- 
truction  can  find  to  live  on,  he  goes  back  into 
dust,  and  even  there  he  is  kept  alive  by  the 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  21 

same  God  that  gives  to  us  the  intelligence  to 
find  him,  to  see  him  and  to  describe  him  in 
our  imperfect  way. 

He  knew  something  of  these  mysteries;  he 
wanted  to  know  more.  He  said  to  me,  ''You 
have  a  great  advantage  over  me,  for  you  were 
born  just  fifty  years  later,  and  those  who 
are  born  later  still  will  have  an  advantage 
over  you,  for  they  will  have  all  the  discov 
eries  and  inventions  to  guide  them.''  He  also 
said,  "Every  genius  who  is  born  in  the  world 
is  a  revelation  from  God."  Had  he  lived  to 
know  of  Edison,  Pasteur,  Metchinkoff,  Erlich, 
Metz  and  a  great  army  of  kindred  spirits,  he 
would  have  known  that  his  predictions  would 
come  true.  While  sticking  close  to  the  texts 
of  his  Bible,  he  felt  and  often  said  that  there 
was  something  back  of  the  men  who  wrote  it; 
for  said  he,  "There  are  some  things  that  God 
has  not  told  us  yet,  not  even  in  the  Bible.'' 

Some  of  these  things  we  find  out  without 
the  Bible.  In  medicine  we  have  found  out 
that  there  are  certain  substances  that  we  call 
poisons;  these  poisons,  as  arsenic,  strychnine, 
prussic  acid,  opium  and  its  products,  digitalis, 
belladonna  and  aconite;  all  the  mineral  acids, 
alcohol  and  some  others,  when  taken  in  suf- 
ficient quantities,  will  kill  the  human  body. 

On  the  other  hand,  some  of  these  poisons, 
given  in  smaller  doses    or     used     externally, 


22    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

have  been  found  to  be  beneficial  in  certain  in- 
fections, and  have  been  used  in  alleviating 
the  pains  and  diseases  of  man. 

We  have  found  out  that  steam  confined  can 
be  made  the  servant  and  benefactor  of  the 
working  classes. 

We  have  found  that  the  thing  we  call  light- 
ning is  identical  with  electricity  and  can  also 
be  used  in  many  ways  to  serve  the  human 
family. 

We  have  found  that  the  air  compressed  be- 
comes as  powerful  for  good  or  evil  as  the  ex- 
plosion of  gunpowder. 

We  have  found  that  the  winds  may  be 
harnessed  and  made  to  do  our  work  as  well 
as  the  horse  and  oxen.  We  have  found  that 
there  is  a  law  that  we  call  gravitation,  which 
may  be  utilized  in  many  ways  for  the  bene 
fit  of  man. 

We  have  found  many  other  things  which 
are  true,  but  not  reported  in  the  Bible.  These 
truths,  discovered  by  man,  through  pains, 
trials,  longings,  desires,  plans,  purposes  and 
designs,  are  all  as  much  the  revelations  of 
God  as  is  the  words  contained  in  the  book 
that  we  call  the  Bible. 

Pie  said  there  was  a  time  when  we  had  no 
art,  no  pictures,  no  statuary,  no  poetry,  no 
love  for  the  beautiful,  but  now  the  world  was 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  23 

filled  with  beautiful  things,  pictures,  statues, 
poetry,  which  make  life  worth  living;  all  seen, 
recognized  and  by  man  appreciated. 

He  said  there  was  a  time  when  men  did 
not  appreciate  truth,  honor,  integrity,  faith- 
fulness, kindness,  mercy,  gentleness,  humility, 
virtue  and  love,  but  now  all  of  these  beautiful 
characters  were  not  only  appreciated,  but  were 
concluded  absolutely  necessary  as  the  adorn- 
ment of  a  neighbor  and  friend. 

He  said  the  various  sects  in  religion  repre- 
sented the  many  thoughts  of  men,  but  no  one 
of  them  contained  the  whole  of  truth;  so  each 
and  every  one,  if  honest,  should  be  glad, 
pleased  and  benefited  by  looking  for  the  truth 
that  others  held,  which  he  did  not  possess. 
Again,  that  if  you  hold  a  truth  which  you« 
know  to  be  true,  it  is  your  duty  to  offer  it 
freely  to  all  mankind.  He  said  the  whole  duty 
of  the  Church  through  its  preachers  and 
priests,  was  to  give  to  the  world  the  truth  in 
its  entirety  as  far  as  it  was  discovered,  espe- 
cially the  truths  which  enabled  men  to  live 
healthfully,  prosperously,  honestly,  uprightly, 
faithfully,  neighborly,  kindly  and  charitably 
in  this  w'orld,  and  devotedly,  trustfully,  sin- 
cerely and  dependently  for  the  world  to 
come. 

He  said  to  do  this  a  man  must  recognize 
that  there  is   much  outside   of  himself,   and 


24    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

that  all  that  was  accessible  to  him  could  only 
be  attained  by  effort,  Health  and  vigor,  he 
said,  could  only  be  preserved  and  conserved 
by  forethought,  more  knowledge  and  a  will- 
ingness to  obey  the  law  of  one's  physical  be- 
ing. 

The  ability  to  stand  hard  work  or  study 
meant  more  to  one  who  was  willing  to  do  the 
work  and  to  study  than  a  capricious  talent 
used  sparingly. 

He  knew  little  about  the  modern  interpreta- 
tion of  ancient  philosophies,  but  he  said  that 
the  rocks,  the  hills,  the  gold,  the  lands  and 
all  the  things  that  looked  so  solid  and  real 
were  not  so  real  as  the  mind  and  intelligence 
that  created  them. 

He  said  that  the  one  thing  needful,  the  one 
thing  to  desire  and  work  for,  was  not  some- 
thing to  possess,  but  rather  something  TO 
BE. 

He  said  that  no  possibility  of  experience 
could  ever  be  so  real  as  the  actual  experience. 

He  said  no  man  or  woman  was  ever  com- 
pletely himself  or  herself  at  any  one  period 
of  their  lives,  for  their  complete  fulfillment 
could  only  be  given  in  eternty. 

He  said  we  gain  in  knowledge  and  exper- 
ience every  day,  but  we  loose  the  buoyant 
spirits  and  the  freshness  of  youth. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  25 

He  said  that  we  were  created  by  God,  but 
that  God  gave  to  us  the  privilege  of  aiding 
in  finishing  the  product;  and  when  it  is  realiz- 
ed and  appreciated  that  the  conscious  effort 
of  man  in  his  upbuilding  shortens  the  slow 
process  of  what  we  call  nature,  then  man  will 
or  should  make  an  effort  to  be  something 
higher  and  better.  A  contentment  in  ignor- 
ance is  highly  culpable.  We  should  try  to 
remember  the  past;  the  future  may  be  read 
and  understood  better  if  we  could  only  en- 
joy our  full  capacities.  Why  do  we  dream 
while  we  are  sleeping?  Do  these  dreams  tell 
us  something?  Are  these  communications  to 
be  relied  on? 

Can  our  loved  ones  who  have  gone  to  the 
other  world  send  us  love  messages  or  warn- 
ings of  the  dangers  which  may  befall  us? 

He  said  these  questions  can  only  be  an- 
swered by  discovering  the  truth  involved  in 
them;  that  to  discover  these  truths  may  re- 
quire the  effort  of  one,  two,  ten  or  a  hundred 
generations;  but  the  knowledge  is  in  existence 
and  much  of  it  accessible  and  only  prolonged, 
persistent  and  intelligent  effort  can  get  it. 
He  said  this  process  involved  the  broad  ques- 
tion of  the  development  of  man,  which  means 
healthier  children  with  better  minds  and 
higher  aspirations;  these  three  fundamental 
qualities  of  man  will  open  up  better  oppor- 
tunities, to  the  end  that  the  meaning  of  life 


26    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

shall  be  better  understood  and  the  purposes 
of  life  better  fulfilled. 

He  said  that  the  greatest  trouble  with  the 
whole  human  family  who  had  any  religion  at 
all,  was  that  man  was  expected  to  know  all, 
without  time  to  learn,  and  expected  to  do  all 
without  time  to  do  it  in.  He  said  no  one  was 
born  grown;  that  he  was  a  child  first,  then 
youth,  then  man,  then  age — then  death.  He 
said  that  a  child  was  only  a  child  and  that 
he  could  learn  only  a  little  at  the  time;  that 
judgment  and  the  ability  to  see  came  only 
with  maturer  years.  That  some  children  could 
learn  much  faster  than  others;  that  these 
bright  ones,  by  persistent  effort  became  the 
wise  men  and  women  of  the  world,  and  they 
in  their  turn  to  a  large  extent  the  fathers 
and  mothers  of  the  bright  ones  of  the  next 
generation.  That  the  intelligence  of  the  fath- 
ers and  mothers,  provided  better  food,  bet- 
ter clothes,  better  surroundinfjs,  better  appor- 
tunities  for  their  children,  and  the  children 
when  grown  were  so  equipped  that  with  the 
same  desire  for  progress  would  give  to  their 
own  children  the  same  advantages  and  oppor- 
tunities. 

He  said  that  this  process  was  natural  and 
was  right,  and  was  evidently  the  will  of  God 
and  being  right,  and  the  will  of  God,  it  was 
the  best  and  most  appropriate  way  to  lift  the 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  27 

whole  human  family  toward  God.  That  this 
elevation  or  lifting  was  itself  a  process,  but 
being  in  harmony  with  the  Divine  plan,  it 
was  the  true  way  to  strive  and  to  work  in 
this  present  world. 

He  said  this  world  is  just  a  part  of  an- 
other whole,  and  the  whole  included  all  the 
other  worlds,  and  that  each  one  was  controlled 
by  God  and  passed  on  through  space  according 
to  His  plans  and  pleasure.  He  said  if  it  all 
w^orks  like  a  machine  it  is  because  an  all- 
wise  God  could  plan  it  and  set  it  in  motion 
and  put  behind  it  all  and  in  it  all  that  power 
and  intelligence  necessary  to  keep  it  as  He 
wants  it  to  be.  In  it  all  and  a  part  of  it  all 
is  man  with  some  qualities  which  belong  alone 
to  him.  He  can  think,  plan,  do  things  and 
then  reflect  and  meditate  on  his  plans  and  his 
deeds.  Sometimes  he  is  intelligent  enough  to 
discover  his  mistakes,  his  blunders  and  is  will- 
ing to  and  does  make  an  effort  to  correct  them, 
and  in  some  instances  does  so.  This  is  one  of  the[ 
important  ways  that  knowledge  comes  into  the 
world.  He  said  that  our  inability  to  use  our 
full  capacities  made  progress  in  the  world 
very  slow,  but  said  he,  this  is  for  not  making 
an  effort  with  the  capacities  we  do  have;  small 
capacities  well  used  grow  to  be  larger  capaci- 
ties and  capacities  or  talents  neglected  are 
destroyed  by  the  neglect.  It  is  man's  duty 
to  make  the  effort  whether  with  small  or  great 


28    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

capacity,  the  results  belong  to  God.     He  will 
take  care  of  that  which  is  His  own. 

He  said  there  is  an  Intelligence  greater 
than  my  own.  This  Intelligence  keeps  the 
sun,  moon,  planets,  stars  and  the  infinite  hosts 
of  heaven  in  their  proper  places.  It  keeps  the 
hills,  the  plains,  the  rivers,  the  brooks,  the 
grand  old  oceans  supplied  with  that  power, 
that  ability  to  be  hills,  plains,  rivers,  brooks 
and  oceans. 

This  Supreme  Intelligence  gives  life  to  all 
that  lives,  and  makes  it  live  until  it  dies,  and 
it  dies  because  it  has  lived. 

This  Intelligence  gives  to  each  shrub  its  own 
buds,  to  each  flower  its  own  petal,  to  each 
tree  its  own  leaves  and  makes  them  bear  in 
their  season  the  buds,  the  flowers  and  the, 
leaves  as  it  pleases  Him;  they  all  live  and  die 
in  their  proper  order. 

This  Intelligence  gives  to  every  element  a 
power  to  unite  with  some  other  element,  this 
power  is  measured  and  exact  and  is  made 
honest  and  faithful  to  perform  its  proper 
duty  by  the  same  Supreme  Intelligence  that 
created  it. 

That  this  same  Supreme  Intelligence  has 
given  to  man  some  of  His  intelligence  so  that 
man  may  in  ever  so  little  a  way  or  in  ever  so 
great  a  way  understand,  use  and  profit  to  some 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  29 

extent  by  this  knowledge  and  use  of  the  same, 
and  may  work  with  this  Supreme  Intelligence 
and  some  men  do,  and  these  are  they  that  we 
call  the  Children  of  God.  This  does  not  mean 
that  all  the  others  who  do  not  work  with  this 
Supreme  Intelligence  are  not  the  children  of 
God.  It  means  that  they  are  neglectful  chil- 
dren, disobedient  children,  either  through  ig- 
norance or  a  purposeful  neglect.  God  knows 
and  will  deal  with  them  fairly.  He  said,  it  is 
so  much  better  to  be  working  in  harmony  with 
this  Supreme  Intelligence,  for  all  truth,  all 
right,  all  good  can  actually  be  found  in  har- 
mony with  this  Intelligence,  that  many  of  our 
pains,  sorrows,  disappointments  are  in  some 
way  connected  with  our  disharmony  or  the 
disharmony  of  another. 

He  said  further  that  this  disharmony  with 
all  its  pains,  sorrows  and  disappointments  are 
also  a  part  of  the  whole;  but  said  he,  the  Su 
preme  Intelligence  knows  that  disharmony 
is  not  so  good  as  harmony;  so  he  marks  it 
with  tears,  sorrows  and  disappointments  to 
show  us  the  difference  between  harmony  and 
disharmony,  that  we  may  not  be  contented 
with  the  less  good. 

Complete  harmony  with  God,  he  said,  in 
this  world,  is  never  attained,  for  the  complete 
harmony  includes  a  harmony  with  all  that 
is  external  to  myself,  as  well  as  all  that  is 


30    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

is  within  myself.  Man's  greatest  need  is  to 
find  as  much  of  this  harmony  as  his  talents 
and  capacities  will  permit.  The  harmony  is 
one,  as  God  is  One,  to  be  in  complete  harmony 
with  the  whole,  would  be  to  possess  the  whole, 
in  knowledge  and  exiDerience,  and  this  is  pos- 
sible alone  for  God. 

He  said,  ''I  am  a  part  and  not  the  whole, 
but  I  play  a  part  and  the  part  I  play  is  a 
part  of  the  whole,  and  the  whole  is  not  com- 
plete without  the  part  that  I  play,  whether 
the  part  I  play  makes  what  we  call  harmony 
or  discord.'' 

The  whole  harmony  is  not  played  on  earth, 
that  part  which  contains  some  of  the  discords 
are  found  on  earth,  some  in  other  worlds; 
the  sweet  music,  that  period  of  the  grand 
whole  harmony  which  is  completed  and  fitted 
for  the  ear  of  the  Composer,  alone  is  found 
in  eternit}^,  for  neither  a  thousand  years  nor 
a  million  years  is  time  enough  for  God  to  com- 
plete the  harmony  which  He  has  composed 
for  Himself. 

It  is  impossible  to  measure  the  heights 
and  depths  of  a  man  like  my  father  by  any 
ordinary  rule.  While  he  accepted  the  Bible 
as  inspired  and  believed  in  it  firmly,  he  said 
there  were  many  statements  in  it  which 
seemed  to  have  been  changed  or  mistrans- 
lated, but  he  said  that  no  one  should  waste 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  31 

his  time  on  puzzles,  as  there  was  enough  in 
the  Bible  that  was  clear  and  intelligent  to 
point  out  a  line  of  conduct  that  would  make 
a  good  man  of  any  one  who  would  follow  the 
light  that  was  given. 

He  gave  little  time  to  the  discussions  of 
the  dogmas  of  the  Church,  of  his  Church,  or 
any  other  Church.  He  was  first  Baptist,  aft- 
erward a  Christian,  or  Campbellite.  He  was 
too  busy  loving  his  neighbors  and  doing  deeds 
of  charity  to  waste  his  time  in  discussing  the 
trinity,  atonement,  vicarious  punishment, 
destiny,  good  and  evil,  the  war  of  being 
against  being,  human  consciousness,  trans- 
formation through  death,  of  the  Ego,  the  es- 
sence, substance,  the  nil  and  ens,  nature,  lib- 
erty, necessity. 

He  purposely  avoided  discussions  of  such 
subjects  as  being  time  wasted. 

He  would  frequently  say,  "I  believe  in  the 
Father  and  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost,'' 
without  any  comment  or  explanation  of  its 
meaning. 

His  love  was  greater  than  his  faith,  un- 
less it  was  his  great  faith  that  made  him  love. 
It  was  his  supreme  love  for  all  men,  high  and 
low,  that  made  him  a  mark  for  all.  His  love 
was  not  limited  to  the  human  family,  it  ex- 
tended to  the  animals,  birds   and  fishes.     It 


32    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

was  a  supreme  benevolence    spreading     over 
men  and  extending  even  to  things. 

He  looked  on  deformity  with  a  pitying  eye, 
putting  no  blame  on  the  object  but  seeking 
thoughtfully  for  an  explanation  beyond  and 
back  of  this  crippled  life.  He  recognized 
friends  in  some  of  the  reptiles.  I  remember 
his  warning  to  the  negroes  and  to  myself  not 
to  kill  two  large  king  snakes  that  lived  in  our 
barn.  He  said  that  they  were  our  friends  for 
they  drove  away  all  of  the  rats  and  were 
worth  more  in  this  way  than  many  cats,  and 
were  no  expense  or  trouble  to  keep. 

These  snakes  lived  on  the  rats  and  mice, 
and  could  be  seen  lying  on  the  joists  or  be- 
tween the  cracks  and  sometimes  curled  up 
in  the  feed  basket.  When  found  in  the  basket 
by  the  negro  who  was  feeding  the  mules,  there 
was  sure  to  be  an  exclamation  of  horror,  for 
the  negroes,  like  the  rest  of  the  human  fam- 
ily, hate  a  snake,  and  all  snakes  are  alike  to 
a  negro. 

While  these  negroes  respected  my  father 
and  were  devoted  to  him  and  obeyed  him  with- 
out question  and  left  unmolested  these  snakes 
for  a  year  or  two,  one  day  I  found  both  of 
them  dead;  they  had  been  broken  in  several 
places  and  had  been  buried,  but  murder  will 
out,  for  a  pig  found  them  and  rooted  them 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  33 

out  of  the  ground,  and  left  the  snakes  un- 
eaten. This  is  curious,  for  hogs  are  fond  of 
snake  meat. 

I  suspected  the  negroes  of  having  killed 
these  snakes.  When  I  told  my  father,  he  said, 
"Poor,  ignorant  things,  they  knew  no  better.'^ 

In  his  mature  manhood,  his  patience,  tolera- 
tion and  gentleness  seemed  to  be  boundless, 
but  an  old  friend  who  knew  him  when  he  was 
a  young  man,  told  me  that  my  father,  in  his 
youth  and  early  manhood,  was  passionate, 
hot-tempered  and  would  fight  on  slight  provo- 
cation. So  his  gentleness  and  even  temper 
was  a  matter  of  conviction  with  him.  He  had 
curbed  his  temper,  he  had  restrained  his  pas- 
sionate nature,  until  he  had  both  under  con- 
trol He  was  fond  of  company  and  a  good 
talker.  He  had  much  to  tell  that  was  highly 
interesting,  but  the  matter  related  almost  ex- 
clusively to  life;  life  in  general  and  in  vari- 
ous special  lives,  good,  bad  and  indifferent, 
that  he  had  known.  His  stories  w^ere  the  re- 
lations of  actual  experience  of  himself  and 
others.  I  do  not  remember  a  single  instance 
where  he  told  a  story  or  a  joke  simply  to  make 
people  laugh. 

He  was  cheerful  and  bubbling  over  with  wit 
and  sometimes  made  his  audiences  laugh 
when  he  did  not  intend  to  do  so. 

I  was  present  on  one    occasion    when    he 


34    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

was  preaching  in  a  country  church.  The  peo- 
ple were  all  good,  kind,  simple  folk;  but  many 
would  go  out  and  come  in  the  church  during 
the  services;  this  seemed  to  annoy  my  father 
and  in  the  middle  of  his  sermon  he  digressed 
long  enough  to  beg  the  people  to  be  more 
thoughtful  of  themselves  and  of  him  and  went 
on  and  told  this  story,  to  show  how  a  thought- 
less person  could  disturb  a  congregation.  He 
said  that  he  was  preaching  in  a  country 
church  in  Hyde  County,  North  Carolina,  and 
said,  ^'I  must  have  been  very  dull  and  unin- 
teresting, for  I  saw  one  of  the  men  on  a  back 
bench  fast  asleep.  He  had  settled  low  down 
on  his  seat,  so  that  his  head  rested  on  the 
back  of  the  bench;  he  was  breathing  through 
his  mouth,  and  his  mouth  was  wide  open. 
The  gallery  w^as  above  him,  filled  with  young 
people.  One  of  the  boys,  a  very  thoughtless 
boy,  had  heard  the  deep,  sonorous  breathing 
of  the  man  below.  At  first  he  could  not  make 
out  what  it  was.  So,  in  his  inconsiderate, 
thoughtless  w^ay,  he  leaned  over  the  balcony 
to  see  w^hat  was  the  cause  of  these  heavy 
sighs  that  he  had  beard;  He  heard  the  sup- 
pressed noise,  and  connected  it  with  the  sleep- 
ing man  immediately  below.  I  saw  both  the 
sleeping  man  and  the  boy.  I  knew  that  some- 
thing was  about  to  happen.  I  was  so  dis- 
tracted I  almost  lost  the  thread  of  my  dis- 
course.    If  that  poor  boy  and  that  poor  man 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  35 

only  knew  how  much  they  were  disturbing 
me,  and  through  me  the  whole  congregation, 
they  would  not  be  so  thoughtless,  the  man 
to  go  to  sleep,  and  the  boy  to  do  what  he 
did  do.  I  saw  that  boy  pull  out  of  his  mouth 
an  old  exhausted  quid  of  tobacco,  and,  taking 
aim,  dropped  it  right  into  the  man's  open 
mouth.  The  mouth  went  shut  like  a  steel 
trap,  and  the  man  waked  up.--  The  congre- 
gation who  heard  this  story,  did  not  hear  the 
last  part  of  it,  for  when  the  piece  of  tobacco 
dropped,  they  went  wild  and  roared  with 
laughter.  My  father  was  so  surprised  at  this 
outburst  that  he  stopped  his  sermon  and  dis- 
missed the  congregation. 

He  never  even  smiled.  He  told  me  after- 
ward that  he  felt  hurt,  but  the  big  congre- 
gation in  the  afternoon  and  the  close  atten- 
tion paid  to  his  sermon  and  the  great  interest 
taken  by  the  whole  congregation  in  all  the 
services  and  the  passing  in  and  out  of  the 
church  by  so  many  having  stopped,  he  felt 
compensated  for  what  he  called  his  "break'^ 
in  the  morning. 

At  home,  he  was  always  busy.  His  days 
were  filled  Avith  good  deeds,  good  words,  good 
thoughts.  He  lived  much  out  of  doors;  he  was 
fond  of  long  rambles  in  the  woods.  He  would 
do  some  manual  labor  every  day,  when  the 
weather  was  fine  he  would  work  in  the  vege- 


36    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

table  garden  an  hour  or  so,  or  if  the  grass 
was  getting  the  upper  hand  in  the  cotton  or 
corn  fields,  he  would  go  there  and  work  with 
the  negroes. 

If  the  day  was  wet  and  inclement,  he  would 
put  in  the  day  answering  his  letters  and  mak- 
ing what  he  called  his  "skeletons"  for  his  ser- 
mons. He  never  wrote  out  his  sermons.  He 
said,  "I  must  preach,  not  read  to  my  congre- 
gaton."  These  "skeletons"  sometimes  covered 
less  than  one  page  in  a  small  note  book. 
After  making  these  "skeletons"  he  would  sel- 
dom refer  to  them  again.  Sometimes  he 
would  go  off  on  a  preaching  tour  and  forget, 
leaving  his  "skeletons"  at  home. 


'fe 


I  asked  him  once  how  he  got  along  with- 
out his  notes.  He  said,  "I  do  my  work  mostly 
at  night,  when  others  are  sleeping,  when  I 
am  not  liable  to  be  interrupted  and  w^hen  I 
have  gone  over  a  subject  and  made  my  notes, 
I  seem  to  be  able  to  read  them  again  without 
having  the  paper  in  my  hand,  but  I  loose  the 
whole  discourse,  if  I  do  not  make  the  notes." 

He  said,  "There  is  another  peculiarity  about 
my  memory.  I  do  not  think  that  I  can  repeat 
the  words  of  a  single  hymn  without  the  music, 
but  as  soon  as  the  words  are  sung,  all  of  the 
words  of  the  hymn  come  to  me  one  by  one  as 
they  are  sung.  So  I  seldom  use  a  hymn  book 
in  singing." 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  37 

He  said,  "I  seldom  try  to  quote  Scripture, 
for  I  am  liable  to  change  one  or  two  words, 
putting  in  words  of  my  own  and  leaving  out 
the  scriptural  words,''  and  he  said,  further,  "I 
note  that  many  others  do  the  same  thing.  So 
to  avoid  this  common  fault,  I  read  the  words 
out  of  my  Bible.  That  is  why  you  see  my 
Bible  nearly  worn  out." 

''This,  he  said,  holding  up  his  well-thumbed 
book,  ''is  the  fourth  Bible  that  I  have  worn 
out;"  meaning,  of  course,  the  physical  book, 
and  not  its  contents. 

At  every  meal,  we  all  bowed  our  heads  and 
my  father  would  lift  his  hands  and  say,  ''Gra- 
cious Lord,  accept  our  sincere  thanks  for  these 
and  all  Thy  kind  provisions  and  save  us  in 
heaven  for  Christ's  sake.    Amen." 

At  night,  sometimes  at  the  supper  table, 
sometimes  at  bed  time,  depending  on  who  was 
at  our  home.  When  strangers  were  with  us, 
it  was  at  the  supper  table,  if  our  family  alone 
were  present  it  would  be  at  bed  time,  my 
father  w^ould  get  his  Bible  and  without  a  word 
of  explanation,  would  open  it  and  read  one  of 
the  Psalms  or  something  from  the  New  Testa- 
inent;  the  reading  would  include  the  most  di- 
verse subjects,  from  evening  to  evening.  Then 
he  would  say,  "Let  us  pray."  I  note  that  his 
prayer   alw^ays   followed  the   subject    of    thp 


38    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

reading.  These  prayers  were  impromptu  ami 
were  Tery  eloquent,  very  devout,  very  humble 
and  were  always  supplications.  He  did  not 
pray  the  prayers  that  I  have  heard  others 
pray,  wherein  they  give  to  God  all  sorts  of 
information  and  then  ask  Him  what  He 
thought  of  it. 

After  these  ^'family  prayers"  were  over,  he 
would  go  out  in  the  night  and  be  gone  an  hour 
or  more,  as  if  the  ^'family  prayers''  reminded 
him  that  he  ought  to  pray.  Out  under  the 
starry  heavens,  he  w^as  alone  with  his  God, 
there  he  could  lift  up  his  heart  in  con- 
templative, peaceful,  adoring  mood,  with  the 
windows  of  his  soul  open  toward  the  sky,  with 
the  visible  splendor  of  the  constellations  over 
him;  he  was  ready  to  receive,  willing  to  have, 
and  anxiously  awaiting  any  and  all  commun- 
ications from  the  unknown.  At  such  times, 
with  his  heart  full  of  gratitude  for  all  favors 
received  and  sending  up  to  God  his  whole 
soul  in  pure  elevated  thoughts,  like  the  per- 
fume of  the  flowers  in  the  night;  lost  in  ador- 
ing, dazzling,  admiration,  hardly  knowing 
Avhat  was  passing  in  his  own  mind,  but  he  said 
that  he  sent  "something  away  and  received 
something  in  return." 

His  meditations  were  of  tHe  grandeur  and 
majesty  of  God,  of  the  infinity  of  the  future, 
of  the  eternity  of  the  past,  of  all  the  vast 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  39 

insoluble  mysteries  on  every  hand,  and  not 
trying  to  unravel  the  puzzles,  he  gazed  in  won- 
der at  them. 

He  saw  the  obdient  suffer  as  well  as  the  dis- 
obedient. Saints  as  well  as  sinners.  He  saw 
old  age  and  death  coming  to  all  alike.  He 
saw   the  thorns   growing  with  the  flowers. 

He  saw  the  human  bandits  robbing  the  law 
abiding  man. 

He  saw  that  joy  lasts  only  a  day,  but  tears 
and  sorrows  are  with  us  a  whole  lifetime.  He 
saw  that  there  was  little  in  this  life  to  satisfy 
one.  That  all  our  plans  seemed  to  be  cut  short. 
Yet,  he  said,   ''God  is   good,   and  He  knows 
how  it  will  end.    It  will  end  as  He  wants  it  to 
end.    No  man  can  spoil  the  final  plans  of  God.' 
He  worshiped,  he  adorned,  he  trusted  God. 
In  this  trust  was  centered  the  reserved  force, 
confidence  or  faith  which  gave  to  him,  above 
anv  man  I  have  ever  known,  that  power  which 
served  him  in  every  emergency  of  life  and  did 
not  desert  him  in  death. 

His  life  was  a  life  of  love.  He  loved  God, 
and  he  loved  his  fellow  men. 

The  cruelty,  hatred  and  oppression  of  others 
simply  revealed  to  him  a  greater  opportunity 
to  teach  them,  to  show  them  in  his  own  life, 
the    immense    difference    between    love    and 


40    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

hate.  "How  can  you  hate  one  another,"  he 
said,  'Svhen  love  is  so  much  better?" 

Some  men  labor  for  gold,  others  for  lands 
and  others  property.  Some  for  ambition  and 
fame,  but  his  whole  effort,  his  every  energy, 
his  whole  life  and  purpose,  seemed  to  be  di- 
rected to  one  end,  to  make  the  rich  pity  the 
poor,  to  make  the  high  pity  the  low,  to  make 
the  strong  pity  the  weak,  to  make  the  intelli- 
gent pity  the  ignorant,  to  make  the  good  pity 
the  bad,  to  make  the  powerful  pity  the  de- 
pendants, to  make  the  gentle  pity  the  vicious, 
to  make  the  kind  pity  the  unkind,  to  make  the 
joyous  pity  the  sorrowing,  to  make  the  peace- 
ful pity  the  malignant,  to  make  the  patient 
pity  the  impatient,  to  make  the  loving  pity 
those  who  hate.  This  was  his  gospel,  this 
was  his  text  for  all  sermons.  He  might  vary 
the  words,  but  he  never  varied  his  theme,  this 
was  the  burden  of  every  sermon,  this  was 
the  pith  of  every  prayer,  this  was  the  sub- 
ject nearest  his  heart,  this  was  his  life,  this 
was  ''the  all"  to  him;  the  theme  was  so  high, 
so  low,  so  broad,  so  long  that  it  left  himself 
at  one  side  neglected  and  forgotten,  but  still 
looking  on  in  wonder  and  anticipation,  reflect 
ing  and  meditating  to  find  some  new  plan  or 
course  wherein  he  could  do  something  more 
to  bring  in  the  Kingdom,  where  the  strong 
would  bear  the  burdens  of  the  weak. 

Resolutions  of  respect,  passed  at  a  meeting 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  41 

of  the  Diciples  of  Christ  at  Oak  Grove,  Pitt 
County,  N.  C,  October  8th,  1870. 

On  motion  of  M.  T.  Moye,  the  resolutions 
in  regard  to  Elder  Amos  Johnston  Battle  were 
adopted  and  ordered  to  be  placed  on  our  min- 
utes: 

Whereas,  It  has  pleased  Almighty  God,  the 
Sovereign  Ruler  and  Disposer  of  events,  to  re- 
move our  well-beloved  brother  and  co-laborer 
in  the  Lord,  Elder  A.  J.  Battle  from  his  sphere 
of  earthly  usefulness;  and 

Whereas,  The  Disciples  of  Christ  of  North 
Carolina  for  whom  he  has  labored  so  faithfully 
in  the  past,  have  heard  the  melancholy  tid- 
ings of  his  decease;  now,  therefore,  be  it 

RESOLVED:  First,  That  while  as  Christians 
we  are  constrained  to  bow  with  submission  to 
the  afflictive  dispensation  of  his  Father  and 
ours,  we  feel  that  one  of  our  noblest  men  has 
been  gathered  to  his  fathers,  and  that  the 
Church  has  lost  one  of  its  most  eminent 
preachers,  so  eminently  qualified  by  the  clear- 
ness of  his  mind  and  child-like  purity  and  sim- 
plicity of  his  life  for  the  promulgation  of  the 
primitive  Gospel; 

Second,  That  the  Moderator  of  this  Confer- 
ence be  requested  to  appoint  some  brother  to 
prepare  an  obituary  notice  of  the  deceased 
to  appear  with  the  minutes  of  this  Confer- 
ence and  to  become  part  of  its  records. 


42    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

Third,  That  we  tender  our  heartfelt  sym- 
pathies to  his  surviving  partner  and  other 
members  of  his  family  in  their  bereavement, 
and  assure  them  of  our  great  and  abiding  con- 
fidence that  God  will  sustain  them  by  His 
grace  if  they  lean  upon  His  love; 

Fourth,  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be 
forwarded  by  the  clerk  of  the  meeting  to  the 
Avidow  of  our  departed  brother,  and  that  the 
"Christian  Review"  and  the  ''Christian  Stand- 
ard,'' of  Cincinnati,  and  the  "Wilson  Plain 
Dealer'  be  furnished  with  copies  for  publica 
tion. 

JOHN  T.  WALSH, 
MOSES  T.  MOYE, 
PETER  HINES, 

Committee. 

Rev.  M.  T.  Moye  was  appointed  to  write  the 
obituary  notice  and  Rev.  John  T.  Walsh  was 
asked  to  preach  a  funeral  sermon  on  Satur- 
day night  in  memory  of  Elder  Battle,  which 
was  done. 

This  sermon  was  very  eloquent  and  beauti- 
ful and  portrayed  the  character  of  my  father* 
in  the  most  eloquent  terms.  It  was  delivered 
impromptu  and  no  copy  of  it  was  preserved. 

The  Rev.  Moses  T.  Moye's  obituary  notice  is 
as  follows,  omitting  that  part  copied  by  Mr. 
Collier  Cobb,  which  includes  the  first  three 
paragraphs. 


AND  SOMIE  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  43 

"In  early  life  he  was  deeply  impressed  with 
the  importance  of  obeying  God  and  having  his 
mind  greatly  confused  by  the  mystic  and  mud 
died  doctrines  of  those  who  deny  to  man  free 
agency.  For  a  few  years  during  his  early  man- 
hood he  gave  himself  freely  to  the  pleasures 
and  frivolties  of  the  world.    These  proving  al- 
together unsatisfactory,   and    feeling     deeply 
impressed  with  the  convictions  that  life  should 
be  devoted  to  more  noble    gratifications,    he 
again  directed  his   mind  to  the   serious   con- 
templation of  the  salvation  of  his  soul.     Still 
mystified    by    those    "mysterious    manifesta- 
tions" of  spirit  so  often  portrayed  in  the  ex- 
perience of  those  who  united  with  the  Church 
in  his  vicinity,  he  sought  by  prayer  and  humble 
supplication  that  God  would  make  knoAvn  to 
him  either  by  an   audible  voice   or  by  some 
mysterious  agency,  his  acceptability  and  doc- 
trine to  eternal  life,  and  failing  in  this  to  ob- 
tain that  peace  of  mind  for  which  he  sought, 
he  turned  to  the  living  oracles  of  God,  and 
learning  therein  the  Divine  will,   he  became 
obedient  to  the  Faith,  uniting  with  the  Mis- 
sionary Baptist  Church  at  Mt.  Zion,  Georgia, 
in  his  twenty-third  year. 

"Three  years  later  he  was  ordained  to  the 
ministry.  Entering  upon  his  ministerial  career 
with  a  zeal  and  fervency  which  few  possess, 
he  devoted  his  talents,  his  means  and  his  life 
to  the  proclamation  of  the    glorious     gospel 


44    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

which  he  loved  so  well,  preaching  very  suc- 
cessfully during  the  remainder  of  his  life  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  intervals  of  short  dur- 
ation— first  to  the  Missionary  Baptists,  aft- 
erwards to  the  Disciples  of  Christ,  with  whom 
he  became  identified  about  eighteen  years 
ago.  Warm-hearted,  self-sacrificing,  zealous 
and  greatly  devoted  to  pure  Christianity,  he 
endured  hardships  as  a  good  soldier,  even 
w^alking  from  house  to  house  and  from  church 
to  church  to  proclaim  the  glad  tidings  of  sal- 
vation. Patient,  hopeful  and  forgiving,  he 
meekly  received  the  indignities  heaped  upon 
him,  submitting  his  cause  to  God  in  the  great 
Assize,  where  the  secrets  of  all  hearts  shall  be 
revealed. 

In  the  month  of  March,  A.  D.  1869,  while 
successfully  prosecuting  his  work  as  evange- 
list in  the  mountains  of  North  Carolina,  he  was 
attacked  with  cancer  near  his  right  eye,  which 
became  so  painful  that  he  was  compelled,  re- 
luctantly, to  abandon  this  inviting  field,  where 
the  harvest  was  almost  ready  for  the  sickle, 
and  return  home  to  seek  medical  aid. 

"After  applying  several  prescribed  reme- 
dies, which  failed  to  arrest  the  progress  of  the 
disease,  he  was  induced  as  a  last  resort  to 
place  himself  under  the  supervision  of  Dr. 
Kline,  of  Philadelphia,  who  professed  to  make 
the  treatment  of  cancer  a  specialty. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  45 

"Here,  patiently  enduring  great  suffering, 
both  from  the  malignant  disease  and  the  se- 
verity of  the  treatment,  which  caused  the  loss 
of  the  right  eye,  at  the  expiration  of  five 
months  he  returned  home  so  much  improved 
that  he  himself  and  many  of  his  friends  were 
encouraged  to  believe  that  he  would  be  speed- 
ily cured,  but  in  this  they  were  sadly  dis- 
appointed. 

"Remaining  home  about  six  weeks,  preach- 
ing occasionally  at  the  Court  House  in  Wil- 
son, the  progress  of  his  disease  remaining  un- 
checked, he  returned  to  Kline's  Cancer  Infirm- 
ary. But  the  skill  of  the  physician  proving  in- 
effectual, he  was  declared  incurable  and  sent 
home  to  die. 

"For  five  or  six  weeks  longer  he  lingered, 
prostrated  by  the  most  intense  physical  suf- 
fering, from  which  he  was' relieved  by  death 
on  the  24th  of  September,  1870. 

"During  the  whole  of  his  protracted  suffer- 
ing, which  extended  over  the  space  of  more 
than  eighteen  months,  no  murmuring  com- 
plaints against  the  afflictive  hand  of  Provi- 
dence were  ever  known  to  have  escaped  his 
lips. 

Addressing  his  wife  and  children  a  short 
time  previous  to  his  death,  he  said: 

"  ^Do  not  be  so  selfish  as  to  have  me  re- 
main here  in  this  suffering  condition.     Weep 


46    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

not  for  me.  Christ  was  made  perfect  through 
suffering,  and  I  am  willing  to  endure  every- 
thing that  the  Lord  may  see  fit  to  afflict  me 
with.  It  will  soon  be  over.  And  I  am  so 
happy  at  the  prospect  of  rest  and  happiness 
that  nothing  disturbs  me.' 

^'The  humble  petition  to  the  pitying  eye  of 
God  was  beautifully  answered  in  his  conflict 
with  the  last  enemy  of  man;  for  he  died  with 
out  a  murmur;  but  with  the  most  perfect 
resignation  as  a  Christian,  he  neither  mur- 
mured nor  complained. 

"Only  one  sorrow  seemed  to  brood  over  his 
mind,  and  that  was  that  he  was  denied  the 
happy  privilege  of  laboring  in  the  Master'>^ 
vineyard. 

"He  often  spoke  of  this  with  deep  regret. 
The  highest  order  of  spirituality  to  be  at- 
tained on  earth  was  evidently  acquired  by  him 
before  his  death. 

"As  an  evidence  of  the  truthfulness  of  this 
assertion,  the  complete  dedication  of  himself 
to  God,  found  after  his  death  among  his  pa- 
pers, in  his  own  handwriting  is  hereby  in- 
serted as  follows: 

"  ^Eternal  and  ever  blessed  God!  I  desire  to 
present  myself  before  Thee  with  deepest  hu- 
miliation and  abasement  of  soul,  sensible  how 
unworthy  such  a  worm  is  to  appear  before 
Thee,  TToly  ^fajosty  of  Heaven,  and  to  enter 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  47 

into  covenant  transactions  with  Thee,  I  am 
acknowledging  myself  to  have  been  a  great  of- 
fender. Smiting  on  my  breast,  and  saying 
with  the  humble  Publican,  ^'God  be  merciful 
to  me  a  sinner,"  I  come,  invited  in  the  name 
of  Thy  Son,  and  wholly  trusting  in  His  right- 
eousness, entreating  Thee  for  His  sake.' 

"  ^Thou  wilt  be  merciful  to  my  unrighteous- 
ness and  wilt  no  more  remember  my  sins. 
Permit  me,  O  Lord,  to  bring  back  unto  Thee 
those  powers  and  faculties  which  I  have  un- 
gratefully and  sacreligoisuly  alienated  from 
Thy  service  and  receive,  I  beseech  Thee,  Thy 
poor,  revolted  creature,  who  is  now  convinced 
of  Thy  right  to  him  and  who  desires  nothing 
in  the  world  except  to  be  Thine.  It  is  with 
the  utmost  solemnity  that  I  make  this  sur- 
render to  Thee.  I  avouch  the  Lord  this  day 
to  be  my  God,  and  I  avouch  and  declare  my- 
self this  day  to  be  one  of  His  covenanted  chil- 
dren and  people.' 

"  'Hear,  O  Thou  God  of  Heaven,  and  record 
in  the  book  of  Thy  remembrance  that  I  am 
Thine,  eternally  Thine.' 

"  'I  would  not  consecrate  to  Thee  some  of 
my  powers,  or  some  of  my  possessions,  or  give 
to  Thee  a  certain  portion  of  my  services,  or 
all  I  am  capable  of  for  a  limited  time,  but  I 
would  be  wholly  Thine,  and  Thine  forever.' 


48    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

"  Trom  this  day  do  I  solemnly  renounce  all 
former  lords  which  have  held  dominion  over 
me;  every  sin  and  every  lust  which  has  most 
unjustly  usurped  dominion  over  my  soul  and 
in  Thy  name  bid  defiance  to  hell,  and  to  all 
the  corruptions  which  their  fatal  temptations 
have  introduced  into  my  soul.  The  whole 
powers  of  my  nature,  all  the  faculties  of  my 
mind  and  all  the  members  of  my  body  would 
I  present  before  Thee  this  day  ''as  a  long  sac- 
rifice wholly  acceptable  to  God,"  which  I  know 
to  be  my  reasonable  service/ 

u  irp^  Thee  I  consecrate  not  only  my  person 
and  powers,  but  all  my  worldly  possessions, 
and  earnestly  pray  Thee  also  to  give  me 
strength  and  courage  to  exert  for  Thy  glory 
all  the  influence  I  may  Have  over  others  in  all 
the  relations  of  life  in  which  I  stand.' 

''  'Nor  do  I  consecrate  all  that  I  am  and  all 
that  I  have  only  to  Thy  service,  but  also  most 
humbly  resign  and  submit  to  Thy  Holy  Sov- 
ereign will,  myself  and  all  that  I  call  mine.' 

-"  'I  leave,  O,  Lord,  to  Thy  management  and 
direction  all  I  possess  and  all  I  wish,  and  set 
every  enjoyment  and  every  interest  to  be  dis- 
posed of  as  Thou  pleasest,  contentedly  resolv- 
ing in  all  that  Thou  appointest  for  me  my  will 
unto  Thine,  and  looking  on  myself  as  noth- 
ing, and  on  Thee,  O,  God,  as  tlie  Great  Eternal 
All,  whose  word  ought  to  determine  every- 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  49 

thing  and  whose  government  ought  to  be  the 
joy  of  all  rational  creatures.' 

"  'Receive,  O,  Heavenly  Father,  Thy  prodig- 
al, wash  me  in  the  blood  of  Thy  dear  Son, 
clothe  me  with  Thy  perfect  righteousness  and 
satisfy  me  throughout  by  the  power  of  Thy 
spirit.  And,  O,  Lord,  when  Thou  seest  the 
agonies  of  dissolving  nature  upon  me,  remem- 
ber this  covenant,  even  though  I  should  be 
incapable  of  recollecting  it,  and  look  with  pity- 
ing eye  upon  Thy  dying  child.  Put  strength 
and  confidence  in  my  departing  spirit,  and  re- 
ceive it  to  the  embrace  of  Thy  everlasting 
love.' 

"Often  seated  by  His  bedside  to  receive  spir- 
itual instruction,  which  flowed  so  freely  from 
his  lips,  he  often  expressed  to  me  his  entire 
resignation,  saying:  'No  lingering  shade  of 
doubt  of  perfect  acceptance  with  God  disturbs 
my  mind.  I  am  perfectly  resigned  and  will- 
ing and  anxious  for  my  earthly  dissolution. 
Yet,  I  do  not  desire  to  hasten  my  death  one 
minute,  nor  to  prolong  my  life  one  moment, 
unless  it  is  God's  will.  He  knoweth  best,  and 
doeth  all  things  well.' 


50    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

The  humble  petition  to  the  pitying  eye  of  God 
was  beautifully  answered,  in  his  conflict  with 
the  last  enemy  of  man,  for  he  died  without 
a  perceptible  pang,  falling  asleep  in  Jesus  as 
peacefully  and  gently  as  a  child  seeks  repose, 
nestling  on  the  bosom  of  its  mother. 

"M.  T.  MOYE." 

Wilson,  N.  C,      Oct.  26,  1870. 


Eev.  Peter  Hine's  beautiful  remarks,  so 
affecting  at  his  burial,  touched  many  a  heart, 
coupled  as  they  were  with  the  hymn  selected 
by  Bro.  Hines. 

*'Dear  as  thou  wert  and  justly  dear. 

We  will  not  weep  for  thee; 
One  thought  shall  check  the  starting  tear, 

It  is  that  thou  art  free.'' 


Here  is  a  letter    received    from    Rev.  J.  J. 

Harper  at  the  time  that  he  sent  to  me  the  fore- 
going minutes  and  obituary  notice.  As  his  let- 
ter confirms  statements  already  made  about 
my  father,  I  insert  it  in  full. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OP  MY  LIFE.  51 

Copy. 

Smithfield,  N.  C,  Oct.  22nd,  1902. 

Mr,  J.  M.  Battle,  St.  Louis,  Mo. : 

Dear  Bro.  Battle — It  gives  me  pleasure  to 
have  found  the  proceedings  in  memory  of  your 
father  and  to  place  them  in  your  hands.  The 
^^Conference''  (then  called)  at  which  the  action 
was  had,  was  held  at  Oak  Grove,  Pitt  County 
(N.  C),  and  the  resolutions  were  passed,  and 
the  obituary  notice,  ordered  on  the  8th  day  of 
October,  1870.  I  also  have  had  copied  the 
reference  to  Elder  Peter  Hines'  remarks  at  the 
funeral.  Your  father  was  held  in  high  esteem 
by  his  brethren,  including  my  father,  at  whose 
home  He  was  a  frequent  visitor,  I  distinctly 
remember  how  unusually  devout  he  was  at  all 
times — how  spiritually  minded  and  conse- 
crated. 

I  remember  to  have  heard  him  tell  my  fa- 
ther about  the  ^^seasons  of  refreshing  from  the 
presence  of  the  Lord,"  that  would  come  to  him 
as  he  walked  alone  the  road.  He  traveled 
much  in  this  way.  He  was  a  strong  preacher, 
logical,  pathetic  and  earnest.  Some  of  his  fa- 
vorite texts  were: 

"Wilt  thou  be  made  whole?'' 
"Let  brotherly  love  continue." 
"Be  a  good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ." 
"This  one  thin*::  I  do." 


52    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

*'Now  abideth  faith,  hope,  charity,  these 
three,  but  the  greatest  of  these  is  charity,''  and 

^'But  thanks  be  to  God  who  giveth  us  the 
victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

I  have  either  heard  him  frequently  quote 
these  Scriptures  or  use  them  as  texts,  or  both, 
and  others  that  I  could  name.  I  expect  to  see 
him  again  "some  sweet  day."  God  bless  you 
and  yours.     Your  Brother  in  Christ. 

J.  J.  HARPER. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  53 


MY  MOTHER. 

My  mother's  maiden  name  was  Margaret 
Hearne  Parker.  She  was  a  daughter  of  Weeks 
Parker  and  Sabra  Irwin  Hearne,  both  of  Edge- 
combe County,  N.  G. 

Weeks  Parker,  my  grandfather,  and  Sabra 
Irwin  Hearne  had  both  been  married  before. 
Weeks  Parker  had  one  son,  John  H.  Parker, 
by  his  first  wife;  and  Sabra  Irwin  Hearne, 
whose  first  husband  was  James  Cooke,  also 
had  one  son,  James  Cooke,  Jr.,  who  was  a 
graduate  of  West  Point  and  commissioned  a 
second  lieutenant  in  the  U.  S.  army  and  after- 
w^ard  was  promoted  to  be  a  Major,  and  died  in 
Wadesboro,  N.  C,  while  on  his  way  to  pay  off 
some  soldiers  at  some  point  in  South  Carolina. 

This  second  marriage  was  a  happy  one;  and 
all  the  parties  concerned  seemed  perfectly 
satisfied  with  the  marriage;  for  they  all 
seemed  devoted  to  each  other;  the  best  proof 
that  there  was  no  dissatisfaction. 

The  second  marriage  gave  to  this  loving 
couple  three  children,  my  mother,  then  a  broth- 
er, Baker  Simmons  Parker,  and  a  sister,  Hen- 
rietta Sabra  Parker.    The  brother  married  his 


54    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

cousin,  Emely  Matthewson;  one  son  was  born 
of  this  union,  and  they  named  him  Weeks  Par- 
ker, for  his  grandfather.  This  Weeks  Parker 
married  Miss  Anna  Pitt  of  Edgecombe  Coun 
tj  (N.  C),  and  there  are  six  children  from  this 
union. 

Henrietta  married  Benjamin  Dossey  Battle, 
a  brother  of  my  father.  Two  daughters  and 
two  sons  were  the  fruit  of  this  union,  Helen, 
Dossey,  Claudia  and  Richard. 

Helen  married  Dr.  Ad.  Ricks  and  left  no 
issue. 

Dossey  married  Miss   Mollie  ,   adopted 

daughter  of  Judge  Reid,  of  North  Carolina. 

A  boy,  Dossey,  and  a  girl,  Helen,  are  the 
fruits  of  this  union. 

Claudia  never  married. 

Richard  married  first  Miss  McDaniel,  with 
no  issue;  after  his  first  wife's  death  he  mar- 
ried Miss  Belle  Wingate  of  Wake  Forest,  N. 
C,  and  this  union  was  blessed  with  three  chil- 
dren, Wingate,  Cullen  and  Richard. 

My  mother's  marriage  was  blessed  with  nine 
children,  five  boys  and  four  girls,  namely,  Car- 
oline Parker,  Ann  Judson,  Martha  Louise, 
James,  Walter  Raleigh,  Katie  Johnston, 
George  Boardman,  Cullen  Andrews,  and  Jesse 
Mercer,  the  author  of  these  memoirs.  Caroline 
married  Dr.  W.  J.  Bullock,  and  left  a  son  Ed- 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  55 

ward  and  a  daughter  Susan.  Ann  married 
Dr.  Wm.  B.  Harrell  and  gave  to  the  state  a 
numerous  progeny,  namely,  Eugene,  Ida,  Rosa, 
Leon,  Annie,  Claude,  Mabel,  and  Albert. 

Martha  Louise  married  Arch  Rhodes,  and  by 
this  union  was  given  six  children,  two  boys, 
Julian  and  Walter,  and  four  girls,  Margaret, 
Henrietta,  Minnie  and  Clyde.  The  first  hus- 
band dying,  she  married  Blake  Rhodes,  a  broth- 
er of  her  first  husband.  By  this  union  there 
was  born  several  children,  of  whom  only  one 
survives,  by  name  Rosa.  Walter  Raleigh 
never  married.  James  died  in  infancy.  Katie 
Johnston  married  Rev.  Dr.  Joseph  H.  Foy,  and 
by  this  union  were  given  two  sons  and  three 
daughters.  The  two  sons,  Paul  and  Phillip, 
died  in  childhood,  and  one  daughter,  Florence. 
Tw^o  daughters,  Maud  and  Josephine,  survive. 
Georo^e  Boardman  never  married.  He  was 
killed  at  the  battle  of  "Seven  Pines,"  near 
Richmond,  Va.,  in  the  Civil  War. 

Cullen  Andrews  married  Miss  Ida  Pugh,  of 
Kentucky,  and  died  without  issue.  Jesse  Mer- 
cer, the  writer  of  these  notes,  married  Miss 
Laura  Elizabeth  Lee,  of  Clayton,  N.  C,  and 
have  only  one  daughter,  namely,  Helen,  who 
married  Eugene  Fleming  Smith,  of  St.  Louis, 
Mo,,  and  have  by  this  union  one  son,  Eugene 
Battle  Smith,  and  one  daughter,  Margaret  Par- 
ker Smith. 


56    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

The  name  of  my  mother  brings  back  to  mj 
memory  the  sad,  patient  face  of  a  delicate, 
frail  being,  white  as  a  ghost.  She  was  always 
thin,  very  thin,  almost  to  emaciation.  She 
was  tall,  and  always  wore  black.  I  do  not  re- 
member to  have  ever  seen  her  dressed  in  any- 
thing but  black.  When  she  was  young  she 
had  red  hair.  When  I  first  saw  her  to  know 
that  she  was  my  mother,  her  hair  was  streaked 
with  white,  which  made  her  hair  look  like  a 
roan,  the  color  made  by  mixing  white  and  red 
hair  together.  Her  face  to  me  was  very 
pleasant,  a  very  faint  smile  could  be  seen,  near- 
ly all  the  time.  She  was  reserved  and  not 
easy  to  get  acquainted  with,  but  kind  and 
considerate  to  all.  She  was  very  patient  and 
not  easily  provoked,  but  was  quick  to  resent 
anything  like  a  slight  or  an  aspersion,  uttered 
against  any  of  her  family.  She  was  amiable 
at  all  times  and  could  seldom  be  throw^n  off 
her  usual  composure.  Her  benevolence  .was 
so  well  recognized  by  all  that  knew  her,  that 
she  w^as  the  first  one  to  be  consulted  when 
others  got  into  trouble.  It  was  when  such  ap- 
peals were  made  to  her  that  her  sweet,  char- 
itable disposition  could  be  seen  and  recog- 
nized. She  lived  in  the  presence  of  the  un- 
seen, and  her  devotion  to  her  religion  made  her 
a  great  source  of  consolation  to  all  in  trouble. 
She  was  earnest  at  all  times,  and  no  one  ever 
suspected  her  of  deception  in  any  matter.   She 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  57 

was  SO  serious  at  all  times  that  it  was  re- 
marked about  her,  many  times,  that  she  could 
not  see  a  joke. 

When  others  would  seem  to  lose  their  faith 
in  an  overruling  Providence,  she  would  say 
that  ^'all  will  yet  work  out  right." 

While  she  was  generous  in  her  own  way,  she 
had  been  imposed  upon  so  much  herself  and 
had  seen  her  husband,  my  own  father,  begged 
out  of  all  that  he  possessed,  which  brought 
real  poverty  to  our  family  and  deprived  her  of 
many  of  the  comforts  that  she  had  been  used 
to  all  her  life,  that  she  had  learned  that  the 
people  who  had  the  nerve  and  cheek  to  ask  for 
things  were  not  the  people  who  suffered,  but 
the  people  who  were  poor,  but  too  proud  to 
beg,  were  the  real  sufferers.  So  she  did  not 
always  give  when  she  was  asked  to  do  so,  but 
was  quick  to  respond  when  she  could  see  that 
it  was  a  real  charity. 

She  was  high-minded  and  Honorable  above 
any  woman  I  ever  knew,  and  ascribed  to  every- 
one the  highest  motives,  but  was  quick  to  dis- 
cover fraud  and  to  drive  it  out  of  her  sight. 
She  was  quick  to  forgive  an  offense,  but  if  the 
offense  was  repeated  the  offender  did  not  get 
much  pleasure  in  her  company,  for  she  could 
freeze  out  unwelcome  guests  in  the  most  pol- 
ished manner.  She  delighted  in  having  a 
peaceful  home;  she  would  not  tolerate  bicker- 


58    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

ings,  quarrels  or  brawls  in  the  family.  The 
only  time  I  remember  to  have  been  whipped 
by  my  mother  was  for  fighting  my  brother  Cul- 
len,  and  at  that  time  she  whipped  us  both. 
To  my  eyes  she  was  as  pure  and  good  as  an 
angel  from  heaven.  She  had  no  bad  habits  or 
little  vices.  She  w^as  a  living  example  of  the 
highest  type  of  womanhood.  In  going  over  her 
life  for  the  thirty-seven  years  that  I  knew  her 
I  cannot  recall  a  single  piece  of  injustice  or  '^, 
mean  action,  or  the  utterance  of  a  single  ugly 
word  by  her  lips.  With  such  a  mother  and 
such  a  father,  with  their  examples  before  me, 
how  could  I  be  anything  but  a  decent,  respect- 
able, honorable  man? 

My  dear  mother,  you  have  been  gone  to  your 
long  resting  place  for  many  years.  Your  poor 
body  has  long  since  gone  back  to  mix  with  the 
elements,  but  the  memory  of  your  dear,  sweet 
life  remains  with  me.  Your  fine.  Christlike 
example  has  kept  me  out  of  temptation's  way 
many  times,  and  though  you  are  pronounced 
dead  in  the  language  of  earth,  you  are  not 
dead  to  me.  You  were  never  more  alive  to 
me  than  you  are  to-day.  When  I  have  joys  I 
want  to  tell  them  to  you,  and  when  trials  come 
I  need  your  calm  words  of  reassurance  to 
lighten  the  burden.  From  my  position  on  the 
earth  I  cannot  see  your  poor,  delicate  body 
moving  around  or  hear  your  words  of  encour- 
agement and  consolation  as  in  the  old  days; 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  59 

but  it  may  be  from  your  new  life  that  you  are 
permitted  to  see  me  as  I  am  here  and  to  sympa- 
thize with  me,  and  it  may  be  that  the  influence 
of  your  dear  spirit  hovers  near  me  this  Christ- 
mas eve  and  stirs  up  anew  my  undying  love 
for  you,  that  prompts  me  to  write  this  tribute 
to  you.  It  will  not  be  long  before  I  join  you, 
just  a  few  more  days,  months  or  years,  and  I 
will  be  with  you,  and  my  other  loved  ones  who 
have  passed  through  the  "valley  of  the  shad- 
ow of  death.''  There  is  nothing  fearful  in  death 
for  me.  Nature's  story,  told  in  simple  language, 
tells  me  that  everything  earthly  that  lives 
must  die,  and  why  not  I?  When  the  greatest 
majority  of  my  loved  ones  are  gone,  it  would 
be  folly  to  choose  to  remain,  where,  in  a  few 
more  years,  I  would  be  left  as  a  stranger  in  a 
strange  land.  So  to  doubt  the  wisdom  of  the 
plan  which  takes  every  creature  that  breathes 
to  another  home  is  to  doubt  the  goodness  of 
our  Maker.  I  do  not,  of  course,  know  that  all 
is  right,  but  I  believe  that  it  is;  and  this  un- 
faltering trust  in  my  God  gives  to  me  the  as- 
surance that  aids  and  supports  me  in  my  tran- 
sition to  another  home. 


60    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 


BORN. 

It  seems  that  everybody  loves  a  baby.  This 
seeming  is  very  near  the  reality.  Is  it  the  in- 
nocence, the  ignorance,  or  the  helplessness 
that  appeals  to  so  many?  Or  is  it  the  possibil- 
ities of  development  that  whets  the  curiosity 
to  watch  the  growth  of  the  infant,  to  see  what 
he  or  she  may  become?  Whatever  the  inter- 
est is,  it  is  surely  in  existence.  The  interest 
is  in  the  real  or  the  ideal  baby.  So  there  must 
be  a  baby — whether  in  prospect  or  in  reality. 
It  does  make  a  difference  as  to  whose  baby  it 
is.  Sometimes  the  baby  is  waited  for  with  a 
loving  longing,  which  is  of  the  most  absorbing 
interest.  Again,  the  poor  little  baby,  all  un- 
conscious of  the  terrible  hate,  abhorrence  and 
dread  of  his  or  her  coming,  comes  to  find  any- 
thing but  a  kindly  welcome.  Sometimes  the 
purposeful  neglect  sends  the  poor  little  unwel- 
come baby  to  his  or  her  long  home  before  baby 
has  come  to  a  consciousness  of  the  fact  that  he 
or  she  was  a  baby  at  all.  In  such  a  case,  it 
could  not  be  truly  said  that  all,  even  seeming- 
ly, loves  a  baby. 

Now,  when  I  was  born,  I  have  been  told  that 
I  was  present,  and  that  I  had  much    to    say 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  6i 

about  it  all,  but  my  language  was  incompre- 
hensible to  all  the  others  that  were  present. 
Many  efforts  were  made  to  understand  my  re- 
marks, with  but  little  success.  I  have  been 
told  that  nearly  everything  I  said  was  uttered 
in  such  a  tone  of  complaint  that  all  agreed 
that  I  objected  to  being  born  at  all.  If  this 
is  true,  the  statement  would  agree  with  an- 
other statement  that  the  disposition  of  the 
mother,  under  such  circumstances,  is  given  to 
the  child.  I  have  been  told  that  my  mother 
objected  very  much  to  having  another  baby 
sent  to  her.  And  no  one  could  blame  her,  for 
I  have  been  told  that  she  had  presented  to  her, 
before  me,  just  eight  more  babies.  So  when 
she  had  been  told  that  the  Lord  loved  her  so 
good  that  He  was  going  to  give  her  another 
baby  for  good  measure,  it  is  no  wonder  that  my 
mother  sat  down  and  had  a  real,  good,  old- 
fashion  cry.  This  cry  was  hardly  a  cry  for  joy, 
but  was  a  genuine  cry  of  anguish,  the  overflow 
of  a  heart  full  of  apprehension  of  coming 
events. 

The  event  finally  arrived,  on  November  10, 
1850,  and  I  have  been  told  that  my  mother  had 
another  cry,  this  was  because  the  baby  that 
came  was  another  boy.  Of  the  other  babies 
that  had  been  given  to  my  mother,  four  were 
boys  and  four  were  girls,  a  very  equal  division, 
leaving  no  grounds  for  complaint.  So  it  seems 
that  this  last  piece  of  information    given    to 


62    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

me,  about  what  happened  at  the  time,  is  not 
reliable.  So  I  decline  to  believe  that  my 
mother  cried  because  I  was  born  a  boy.  There 
must  have  been  another  reason,  that  she  kept 
to  herself — but,  anyway,  another  piece  of  infor- 
mation came  to  me  about  this  most  interesting 
period  of  my  life,  and  this  is,  that  when  my 
father  came  in  and  found  my  mother  crying 
about  the  new  arrival,  he  said,  "Never  mind, 
dear;  this  little  boy  will  take  care  of  you  in 
your  old  age."  This  was  really  a  true  proph 
ecy,  for  my  mother  came  out  to  St.  Louis  with 
me  in  1878,  and  lived  with  me  nearly  all  the 
time  till  she  died  in  1887. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  63 


CHILDHOOD. 

My  earliest  recollections  recall  the  fact  that 
my  mother's  family  lived  in  Wilson,  N.  C.  We 
lived  in  a  large  house,  and  it  was  called  "The 
Battle  House."  It  was  one  block  from  the 
railroad  depot,  and  sometimes  strangers  who 
got  off  the  trains  would  come  up  and  stop  at 
our  house.  At  such  times,  when  there  were 
strangers,  I  with  the  other  children  was  made 
to  wait  till  the  second  table.  This  displeased 
me  very  much,  for  I  could  not  understand  why 
my  mother,  who  loved  me  so  much,  would  make 
me  wait  and  let  a  stranger  eat  all  of  the  best 
things  and  leave  me  to  eat  what  was  left  over. 
When  I  was  older  I  learned  that  my  mother 
was  keeping  a  boarding  house  or  a  hotel  and 
earned  the  money  this  way  to  buy  the  food  thai- 
we  all  ate.  I  know  now  that  this  must  have 
been  a  great  humiliation  to  her,  for  my  mother 
was  the  proudest  woman  I  ever  knew.  My 
childhood  was  spent  mostly  in  crying,  for  real 
as  well  as  imaginary  troubles.  My  mother 
was  very  busy,  and  as  white  as  a  ghost.  So  T 
know  now  that  she  must  have  been  a  very  deli- 
cate woman.  She  looked  like  a  strong  wind 
would  have  blowm  her  away.     I  saw  my  moth- 


64         TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

er  every  day,  but  was  allowed  to  spend  only  a 
few  minutes  at  a  time  in  her  company.  I  was 
taken  away,  out  in  the  yard  if  the  weather  was 
warm,  or  out  in  the  kitchen  or  wash-house  if 
the  weather  was  cold.  Negroes  were  my  com- 
panions. I  played  with  them,  and  spent  my 
time  with  them  all  day,  till  I  was  about  seven 
years  old,  when  I  was  started  to  school.  I  knew 
my  alphabet  and  how  to  read  a  little.  This 
start  on  the  way  to  an  education  was  given  to 
me  by  a  good  old  colored  woman  I  called 
Mammy.  (Her  name  was  Dinah.)  She  was  a 
God-fearing  creature.  She  said  her  prayers 
often.  She  taught  me  the  Lord's  prayer,  ''Our 
Father  who  art  in  heaven,"  also  the  other 
sweet  prayer,  ^'Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep." 
This  good  woman  remained  with  our  family 
till  1865,  w^hen  the  Civil  War  ended,  when  she 
left  us  and  moved  down  to  Greenville,  N.  C, 
where  her  husband,  whose  name  was  ^^Shade,'* 
lived.  After  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves 
she  said  that  she  could  never  enjoy  her  "free- 
dom" as  long  as  she  lived  with  her  master  and 
mistress. 

My  father  was  away  from  home  a  great  deal. 
He  was  a  Baptist  preacher,  and  a  missionary, 
and  he  was  so  busy  saving  the  heathens  down 
in  the  coast  part  of  the  State  that  he  had  no 
time  left  to  impart  knowledge  to  his  barba- 
rian children.  I  use  the  word  barbarian  about 
myself  advisedly,  for  I  can  look    back    now, 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  65 

from  the  standpoint  of  a  superior  development, 
and  I  know  that  I  was  but  little  removed  from 
the  negroes  that  I  played  with,  and  some  of 
them  were  like  the  animals  in  the  forest.  My 
father  read  in  his  Bible  that  it  is  "harder  for 
a  camel  to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle,  than 
for  a  rich  man  to  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven" 
and  that  he  should  "give  to  him  that  asketh 
thee,"  and  "to  him  that  would  borrow  of  thee, 
turn  not  thou  away,"  and  he  believed  this  was 
a  revelation  from  God,  and  was  absolutely  nec- 
essary to  be  done,  so  he  did  it.  He  was  rich 
in  lands  and  negroes,  but  he  gave  away  to 
tlose  that  asked  him  and  lent  to  those  that 
wanted  to  borrow — and  their  "name  was  le- 
gion"— until  he  had  nothing  left  to  provide  for 
his  own.  The  first  children  were  all  w^ell  edu- 
cated. They  had  the  best  advantages  the 
schools  of  the  country  afforded.  Not  so  with 
the  last  three  boys,  of  which  I  was  one.  We 
w^ere  sent  to  school  some,  but  increasing  pov- 
erty, due  in  a  large  measure,  to  the  Civil  War, 
cut  short  our  school  days,  and  sent  us  out  in 
the  world  to  earn  a  living.  The  living  we 
earned  was  a  scant  one,  for  I  remember  teach- 
ing school  when  I  was  sixteen  years  old,  for 
fi^e  months,  and  collected,  in  all,  for  the  five 
months'  work  the  munificent  sum  of  seventeen 
dollars  and  sixty-five  cents.  When  I  note  that 
during  this  five  months  I  was  walking  three 
miles  to  school  and  three   miles     back   home 


66    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

again,  with  a  cold  dinner  eaten  out  of  my  tin 
bucket  that  I  carried  from  home,  I  now  realize 
how  meager  were  my  earnings.  At  that  time 
I  did  not  realize  w^hat  a  great  service  this  hard 
work  and  poor  pay  was  doing  for  me. 

It  gave  to  me  the  one  thing  important  above 
all  others  for  the  beginner  to  know,  namely, 
an  absolute  faith  in  myself,  that  I  could  do  the 
thing  that  I  had  planned  to  do.  I  do  not  mean 
that  I  actually  did  do  all  that  I  had  planned 
to  do,  or  that  I  never  failed  in  my  purposes.  T 
mean  that  I  had  confidence  in  myself,  and  this 
confidence  gave  to  me  enterprise  and  this  enter- 
prise would  start  me  off  on  my  journey  toward 
success.  Starting  toward  the  goal  is  as  nee 
essary  as  reaching  the  goal.  In  fact,  there  is 
a  greater  stimulation  in  the  starting  than  in 
the  finding  and  reaching  the  goal.  All  the 
causes  of  success  and  failure  in  a  worldly  sense 
are  to  be  found  between  the  starting  and  the 
ending.  Here  is  where  we  discover  the  wide 
difference  between  how  we  intend  our  plans  to 
work,  and  how  they  really  work.  Our  plans 
are  made  with  all  the  ability  and  capacity  that 
we  can  command,  and  if  we  could  command  all 
the  other  individuals  who  are  involved  in  our 
plans,  and  they  would  obey  implictly  our  com- 
mands the  results  might  be  more  satisfactory 
to  us,  and  again  they  might  be  less  satisfac- 
tory. So  the  various  results,  all  the  way,  the 
working  out  of  our  plans,  are  as  various  and 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  67 

as  satisfactory  and  otherwise,  as  there  are 
combinations  of  capacity  and  lack  of  capacity, 
and  obedience  to  commands  and  disobdience 
to  commands.  In  other  words,  none  of  us 
know  all  of  what  we  want,  and  none  of  us 
could  do  it  all,  even  if  we  knew  it.  So  I  now 
know  that  I  have  often  ^'builded  wiser  than  I 
knew,"  and  have,  on  the  other  hand,  thought 
that  I  was  building  very  wisely,  and  found  my 
house  w^as  built  on  the  sand,  and  it  tumbled 
down  when  the  storms  came. 

As  a  school  teacher,  I  thought  at  the  time 
that  I  was  a  dismal  failure,  and  have  never 
changed  that  opinion.  Yet  several  of  my  old 
pupils  have  told  me  that  I  gave  to  them  the 
first  impulse  to  be  a  man;  and  that  they  had 
gone  on  and  achieved  success.  This  informa- 
tion is  very  gratifyng  to  me,  but  when  I  sit 
down  and  think  of  the  fool  things  that  I  did 
about  this  period  of  my  life,  I  w^onder  that  I 
could  give  to  anyone  an  impulse  to  be  a  man. 
As  an  example,  I  heard  an  old  teacher  say 
once  that  if  a  boy  wanted  to  be  healthy  he 
should  take  a  cold  bath  every  morning.  We 
had  no  bathtub  at  my  home,  nothing  but  a 
washtub,  and  no  way  to  get  water  into  the  tub 
but  by  drawing  it  from  a  well  in  a  bucket,  fas- 
tened to  the  end  of  a  long  pole;  the  upper  end 
of  the  pole  was  fastened  to  a  long  piece  of  tim- 
ber, and  this  timber  worked  in  a  slot  cut  in  the 
top  of  a  post  in  the  manner  of  a  "see-saw." 


68    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

When  the  bucket  was  forced  down  the  well, 
the  end  of  the  timber  farthest  from  the  well 
would  go  up  in  the  air,  and  when  the  bucket 
full  of  water  came  up,  the  same  end  of  the  tim- 
ber farthest  from  the  well  w^ould  come  down 
and  rest  on  the  ground  again.  It  was  called  a 
"well  sweep."  The  labor,  to  "draw  water,"  as 
this  movement  was  called,  was  too  laborious 
for  a  sickly  boy  of  sixteen,  who  was  small  for 
his  age.  So  this  boy,  who  was  myself,  in  my 
foolishness,  figured  out  that  the  creek  w^as  the 
best  and  easiest  way  that  I  could  get  the  cold 
bath  that  I  believed  was  to  give  me  health 
and  strength.  So,  on  my  way  to  school,  I 
would  come  to  a  creek,  there  I  would  stop,  pull 
off  my  clothes,  and  go  into  the  water.  I  would 
lie  down  in  it.  Sometimes  there  would  be  thin 
ice  on  the  edge  that  I  would  break  as  I  went 
in  the  water.  It  was  so  cold  that  I  would  al- 
most faint  with  the  chill;  my  hands  would  be- 
come numb  with  the  cold,  so  that  I  could  hard- 
ly dress  myself,  putting  my  clothes  on  my  wet 
body.  I  did  not  have  sense  enough  to  take  a 
towel  along  to  dry  my  body  before  putting  on 
my  clothes.  Sometimes  I  would  remain  cold 
all  day,  if  the  trot  that  I  would  take  after 
the  bath  did  not  warm  me  up.  About  this 
period  of  my  life  it  seemed  that  I  could  never 
get  rid  of  having  chills.  I  had  a  chill  nearly 
every  day  for  three  or  four  years.  I  took  qui- 
nine every  day  as  regular  as  I  tried  to  eat  my 


AND  SOM3S  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  69 

meals.  Sometimes  I  had  no  appetite,  and  I 
weighed  less  than  a  hundred  pounds.  No  one 
told  me  that  I  should  not  drink  this  water  out 
of  the  creek  or  out  of  a  ditch,  so  I  kept  on 
drinking  such  surface  water  and  having  chills 
as  long  as  I  lived  in  the  country  around  Wil- 
son. I  noAV  believe  that  all  or  nearly  all  of  my 
sickness  at  that  time  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
I  took  those  cold  baths  and  drank  the  surface 
water. 

I  went  to  school  in  1865,  in  Wilson,  to  Prof. 
D.  S.  Richardson.  He  was  a  New  Englander, 
a  fine  teacher.  He  kept  every  boy  and  girl  in 
a  spelling  class  as  long  as  they  went  to  school 
to  him.  He  also  made  each  one  write  from  a 
copy,  for  one  hour  every  day,  so  these  were 
two  of  the  necessary  branches  of  an  element- 
ary education  that  he  uniformly  gave  to  nearly 
all  of  his  pupils.  At  this  time  our  family  lived 
on  a  farm  we  called  "Walnut  Hill,"  about  three 
miles  from  Wilson,  N.  C,  on  the  railroad  to- 
ward Rocky  Mount. 

One  day  I  was  walking  home  to  the  farm 
from  school,  and  Julian  Rhodes,  my  third  sis^ 
ter's  son,  then  about  nine  years,  was  with 
me;  when  we  got  to  Toisnot  Swamp,  where 
there  were  two  long  railroad  bridges,  we  saw 
a  negro  coming  up  the  embankment  from  the 
water  below;  he  had  in  his  hands  two  turtles; 
we  asked  him  how  he  caught  them.     He  said, 


70    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

"On  hooks."  What  kind  of  hooks?  He  said, 
*'Large  fish  hooks/'  and  he  showed  us  one  that 
he  had  in  his  pocket.  What  did  he  put  on  the 
hooks?  "Frogs.''  On  the  way  going  home 
Julian  and  I  talked  the  matter  over,  and  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  we  must  have  some 
hooks.  When  we  got  home  we  told  our  story 
to  the  whole  family  and  embellished  it  the  best 
that  we  could,  trying  to  enlist  enough  sym 
pathy  with  our  plan  to  get  the  hooks.  At  last 
father  said,  "I  will  get  the  hooks  for  you."  The 
next  day  Julian  went  home  with  me  again  and 
continued  to  do  so  as  long  as  the  interest  in 
the  turtles  kept  up. 

But  this  interest  came  to  a  very  sudden  stop. 
My  father  not  only  got  the  hooks  for  us,  but  he 
put  the  hooks  on  the  lines  and  put  some  lead 
on,  too,  to  help  sink  the  hooks;  he  showed  us 
how  to  put  the  frogs  on  the  hooks,  by  hooking 
them  through  the  back.  He  also  told  us  to 
put  our  lines  in  places  so  that  we  would  not 
forget  where  they  were;  but  to  tie  them  under 
the  water  so  that  others  would  not  see  them 
and  rob  our  hooks.  This  we  did  in  the  morn- 
ing as  we  went  on  to  school;  in  the  afternoon 
we  were  so  anxious  to  reap  the  fruits  of  our 
planning  that  we  ran  nearly  all  the  way  to  the 
swamp.  The  first  day  we  got  two  turtles  out 
of  the  six  hooks  that  we  set.  Wo  did  not  know 
how  to  get  the  hooks  out  of  the  turtles'  mouths, 
for  they  had  swallowed  the  frogs,  hooks  and 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  71 

all.  So  we  carried  our  trophies  in  pride  and 
jubilation  to  the  farm.  Everyone  in  the  fam- 
ily were  highly  pleased;  for  stewed  turtle  with 
some  parsley  put  in  for  flavoring  certainly  does 
make  an  appetizing  breakfast.  Our  good  luck 
followed  us  for  some  time,  and  we  had  got  up 
quite  a  reputation  as  fishermen.  The  enthu- 
siasm was  dying  out  a  little,  for  we  no  longer 
ran  in  our  eagerness  to  get  to  our  hooks,  but 
went  along  more  like  workmen  on  their  way  to 
work. 

One  day  when  we  had  lifted  nearly  all  of  our 
hooks  without  finding  a  turtle,  we  came  to 
one  of  the  hooks  that  seemed  to  be  hanging 
onto  something  down  under  the  water;  we 
could  pull  the  hook  up  a  part  of  the  way,  and 
then  there  would  be  a  pull  on  the  line  like 
there  was  a  strong  spring  working  against  us. 
We  could  not  pull  the  hook  out  of  the  water; 
Julian  and  I  both  had  a  trial  at  it;  and 
we  w^ere  about  to  leave  it,  when  I  thought  of 
one  more  way.  I  cut  a  pole  with  a  fork  at  the 
top;  with  this  pole  I  straddled  the  line  with 
the  fork,  and,  keeping  the  line  taut,  followed  it 
down  in  the  water,  trying  on  each  side  of  the 
line  to  dislodge  the  hook;  at  last,  I  felt  the 
object  on  the  hook  giving  way,  and  I  was  draw- 
ing the  hook  with  what  I  thought  to  be  a  large 
turtle  to  the  surface,  when  quicker  than  words 
can  tell  it  a  large  copperbellied  moccasin  came 
out  of  the  water  with  the  hook  in  his  mouthy 


72    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

He  was  at  least  one  inch  in  diameter  and  three 
and  a  half  to  four  feet  long.  My  hands  were 
so  near  his  head  I  was  afraid  that  he  would 
bite  me;  I  was  so  excited  I  really  did  not  know 
what  I  was  doing;  but  to  save  myself  I  grabbed 
him  about  the  neck  with  my  left  hand;  the 
snake  was  busy,  too;  he  tried  to  turn  his  head 
to  reach  my  hand  with  his  mouth;  but  he  did 
not  have  enough  free  neck  to  do  so;  he  did  the 
next  best  thing  that  he  could;  he  brought  his 
long  wet  body  out  of  the  water  and  threw  it 
upon  my  shoulder  and  around  my  neck.  I  had 
already  got  out  m}^  big  jack-knife  and  opened 
it  with  my  teeth;  with  this  I  commenced  to 
cut  off  his  head;  two  or  three  pulls  of  the  sharp 
edge  on  his  throat  and  his  head  was  off,  and  I 
felt  the  body  relax.  I  dropped  my  knife,  took 
both  hands  and  unwound  the  nasty,  slimy, 
scaly  body  from  around  my  neck  and  threw  it 
oif  with  that  strength  born  of  panic,  and  got 
out  of  the  swamp  as  quick  as  my  legs  could 
carry  me.  Julian  was  ahead  of  me,  for  as  soon 
as  he  saw  the  snake  he  made  a  bolt  to  get 
away;  he  must  have  fallen  in  the  water,  for  he 
was  wet  all  over.  We  sat  down  on  the  rail- 
road, and  after  breathing  hard  for  a  while  be- 
came calm;  then  my  fighting  qualities  came  to 
my  rescue;  so  I  went  back,  got  my  knife  and 
the  snake  and  brought  him  up  on  the  railroad. 
Julian  held  the  body  while  I  pulled  the  skin 
off.    We  carried  the  skin    home,  and    stuffed 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  73 

it  with  wheat  bran,  and  this  snake  skin  was 
hanging  in  my  room  when  we  moved  away  in 

1868. 

This  put  an  end  to  our  turtle  fishing.  The 
shock  was  too  great;  we  did  not  want  another 
like  it. 

Here  is  another  piece  of  foolishness  of  which 
I  was  guilty: 

About  the  last  year  of  the  Civil  War  I  was 
walking  the  railroad  to  school  every  day.  The 
railroad  bed  was  well  worn,  the  rolling  stock 
was  in  poor  condition,  and  sometimes  when  a 
train  would  start  from  Wilmington  or  Golds- 
boro  for  Weldon  it  was  no  certain  thing  that 
that  particular  train  would  ever  reach  its  des- 
tination. These  poorly  equipped  trains  would 
frequently  overtake  me,  as  I  was  on  my  way 
to  the  farm  from  school.  So  here  is  another 
place  when  my  foolish  calculations  came  near 
ending  my  days,  as  well  as  my  career. 

There  was  a  freight  train  that  passed  Wil- 
son about  five  o'clock  p.  m.  This  train  would 
overtake  me  frequently  as  I  was  going  up  the 
hill  after  passing  over  the  trestles  at  Toisnot 
Swamp.  The  train  would  be  running  slow  on 
this  up-grade.  It  was  little  effort  for  me  to 
jump  on  the  last  coach  as  it  came  by.  This 
coach  was  called  the  "caboose."  Now,  I  fig- 
ured it  out  that  I  was  foolish  to  walk  nearly 
all  the  way  home,  and  then  jump  on  this  pass- 


74    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

ing  train  and  ride  this  sliort  distance,  so  I 
would  go  down  to  the  depot  and  get  on  the 
train  as  it  started  from  Wilson  and  ride  all 
the  way  home.  The  train  was  sure  to  slack  up 
in  speed  w^hen  it  came  to  my  hill.  So  I  put  in 
practice  my  plan  for  riding  home.  It  worked 
fine;  for  some  time  the  train  would  come  close 
enough  to  five  o'clock  to  get  me  home  by  sup 
per.  But  one  day  the  train  was  late.  Old 
John  Crone  was  the  engineer  as  well  as  con- 
ductor, on  this  particular  occasion.  I  w^aited 
till  nearly  dark  and  still  no  train  had  come, 
and  just  as  I  was  about  to  start  on  my  long 
three-mile  walk  I  saw  the  smoke  of  my  train. 
I  call  it  mine,  for  I  had  been  riding  on  it  so 
long  I  felt  that  I  was  really  interested  in  it. 
It  was  but  a  short  time  before  the  train  ar- 
rived. Old  John  Crone  made  one  or  two  shifts 
of  the  cars,  and  with  a  very  short  train  for  a 
freight  train,  he  halloed  all  aboard,  and 
quicker  than  I  can  tell  it,  the  train  w^as  in  mo- 
tion, with  me  on  the  caboose  as  usual.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  I  had  never  rode  so  fast  in 
all  my  life.  Before  I  could  realize  where  we 
were,  w^e  had  crossed  the  bridges  over  Toisnofc 
Swamp  and  had  started  up  the  hill  toward 
my  home.  Instead  of  slacking  in  speed  as 
usual,  it  seemed  to  me  that  the  train  was  gain- 
ing in  speed.  I  looked  for  my  landmarks,  and 
there  they  were,  and  passing  on  behind  like  a 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  75 

flash.  The  telegraph  poles  looked  like  a  fine- 
tootli  comb  enlarged,  in  a  minute  the  train 
would  be  to  my  jumping-oh:  place;  but,  good 
heavens,  I  could  not  jump  from  a  train  running 
as  fast  as  this  train  was  running.  It  would  be 
certain  death.  What  could  I  do?  I  had  no 
money.  The  next  station  was  four  miles  from 
my  home.  It  was  nearly  night.  What  would 
my  mother  think  if  I  did  not  come  home?  So 
in  my  perplexity  and  dire  emergency,  I  could 
see  only  one  thing  to  do — jump.  I  must  jump; 
even  if  it  killed  me,  I  must  jump.  So,  picking 
out  a  place  between  the  old  cross-ties  that  were 
on  the  side  of  the  road,  I  threw  off  my  books 
and  my  tin  dinner  bucket.  Said  one,  two,  three 
and  off  I  went;  as  my  feet  struck  the  red  clay 
mud  my  head  kept  on  going  forward  till  my 
face  and  the  front  part  of  my  head  were  buried 
in  the  red  mud.  As  I  got  up  I  was  surprised 
to  know  that  I  was  not  dead.  I  knew  that  I 
was  badly  hurt,  but  I  did  not  know  the  extent 
of  my  injuries.  I  felt  of  my  nose.  I  thought 
it  was  broken.  I  put  my  hand  on  my  forehead. 
I  thought  there  was  a  hole  in  it.  My  mouth 
and  nose  were  both  bleeding.  My  mouth  was 
full  of  the  red  mud.  I  spit  out  the  mud  and  felt 
of  my  front  teeth.  I  thought  that  they  were 
knocked  out;  but  none  of  these  things  were 
fully  true.  I  was  jarred  awfully,  I  was  hurt 
terribly,  but  I  could  discover  no  broken  bones, 


76    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

and  I  could  walk,  so  I  went  back,  got  mj  books 
and  bucket,  and  went  on  toward  home,  in  the 
dark.  I  knew  the  path  so  well  I  got  along 
very  well.  When  I  came  to  the  little  creek  or 
branch  just  before  getting  to  the  house  I 
washed  my  face  as  best  I  could.  I  w^ent  to  the 
kitchen  and  begged  old  Mammy  Dinah  to  put 
some  flour  on  my  face  to  cover  up  the  blood, 
which  she  did,  and  after  eating  a  little  I  went 
to  my  bed  in  an  outhouse,  where  I  slept  at 
night.  My  sleep  was  broken  by  fever  and 
dreams  of  my  sad  experience.  The  next  morn- 
ing early  my  mother  came  in  to  learn  what  was 
the  matter.  I  told  her  only  a  part  of  the  truth. 
I  said  that  I  had  fallen  down  a  hill  and  hurt 
my  face.  I  was  so  sore  that  I  did  not  get  out 
of  bed  for  over  a  week,  and  even  then  it  took 
another  week  for  the  scabs  to  come  off  of  my 
face.  As  big  a  fool  as  I  was  at  this  time  I 
learned  a  lesson  that  lasted  me  a  long  time. 
The  lesson  I  learned  w^as  this,  "Don't  steal  a 
ride  on  a  train,"  and  "don't  jump  off  while  it  is 
moving." 

Here  is  another  piece  of  foolishness  I  was 
guilty  of  about  this  time: 

There  was  another  boy  going  to  the  same 
school,  whose  name  was  Charlie  Clarke.  This 
Charlie  Clarke  was  about  my  size,  though  T 
think  that  he  was  one  or  two  years  younger 
than  I  was.     There  were  other  boys  three  or 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  77 

four  3'ears  older  than  either  of  us — Bill  Barnes, 
Leon  Ellis,  Frank  Deems,  the  last-named  was 
a  talented  son  of  the  noted  Methodist  preach- 
er, the  Rev.  Dr.  Chas.  F.  Deems,  afterward  pas- 
tor of  the  Church  of  the  Strangers,  New  York 
City,  and  editor  of  the  Churchman. 

These  three  boys  learned  that  Charlie 
Clarke  and  I  could  be  induced  to  fight  on  very 
small  provocation.  So  every  few  days,  at  the 
midday  recess,  when  all  the  teachers  were  out 
of  the  vfay,  these  older  boys,  who  should  have 
had  more  consideration  for  us  youngsters, 
would  get  Charlie  and  me  together,  and  by  put- 
ting a  chip  on  my  shouder  and  telling  Charlie 
that  he  was  a  coward  if  he  did  not  knock  the 
chip  off  and  when  this  was  done  they  would 
tell  me  that  I  was  a  coward  if  I  did  not  whip 
Charlie  for  his  act.  Sometimes  the  chip  was 
put  on  Charlie's  shoulder,  and  the  same  pieces 
of  information  were  given  to  us.  So  that  it 
made  little  difference  where  the  chip  was  put, 
whether  on  my  shoulder  or  Charlie's  shoulder, 
there  was  sure  to  be  a  fight.  At  first  we  were 
quite  equally  matched,  but  as  the  months 
passed  by  I  noted  that  Charlie  was  getting 
heavier  and  stronger,  so  I  figured  it  out  that  in 
a  month  or  so  more  Charlie  would  be  too  heavy 
and  too  strong  for  me,  and  would  whip  me,  so  I 
dreaded  such  a  humiliation,  and  to  prevent  it 
I  got  up  this  scheme.     I  met  Charlie  one  morn- 


78    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

ing  and  said,  Charlie,  I  like  you;  don't  you  like 
me?  Charlie  said  Yes,  Jess,  I  do  like  you. 
Then  I  said.  Do  you  notice  how  these  big  boys 
get  us  to  tight  every  few  days,  just  for  their 
amusement?  Charlie  said  that  he  had  noticed 
it.  Then  1  said,  I'll  tell  you  what  we  will  do. 
You  and  I  can  whip  either  one  of  the  big  boys. 
Now  the  next  time  one  of  the  big  boys  tries  to 
get  us  to  fight  I  will  grab  him  around  the  body 
and  you  punch  his  face,  so  when  w^e  get 
through  with  him  this  will  end  our  fighting 
each  other.  Charlie  agreed  to  my  plan.  It 
was  not  long  before  we  had  the  opportunity  to 
put  into  execution  our  j)lan.  Bill  Barnes  was 
the  boy  we  had  to  tackle,  and  he  w^as  the  oldest 
and  strongest  of  the  three,  but  we  were  so 
quick  and  attacked  him  so  unexpectedly  we 
had  little  trouble  in  doing  him  up,  and  made 
him  beg  for  mercy.  This  ended  the  fighting 
between  Charlie  and  me.  As  years  passed 
Charlie  grew  into  manhood  and  he  became  a 
giant.  He  was  six  feet  two  inches  and  weigh- 
ed about  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds.  He 
was  made  the  Chief  of  Police,  and  in  a  negro 
riot  in  the  town  of  Wilson  he  was  the  principal 
figure  in  one  of  the  worst  mix-up  fights  that 
ever  took  place  in  the  town.  When  I  saw 
Charlie  years  after  this  he  had  three  terrible 
scars  on  his  face,  where  somebody  had  cut 
three  long  gashes  in  his  cheeks,  all  the  way 


AND  SOM^E  STORIES.  OF  MY  LIFE.  79 

from  his  eyes  to  his  chin.  I  asked  him  where 
he  got  these  scars.  He  said,  "Oh!  a  little 
scrimmage  I  got  into."  The  other  policeman, 
Peter  Christman,  told  me  some  time  after  that 
a  negro  cut  Charlie's  face  with  a  razor,  but  he 
went  on  and  said,  '^After  the  fight  was  over 
there  were  three  dead  niggers  found  where  the 
fight  had  been." 

I  made  this  remark  to  myself,  "And  this  is 
the  Charlie  Clarke  that  I  was  trying  to  whip." 

As  a  youth,  from  ten  to  fourteen  years  old, 
there  are  only  a  few  incidents,  vividly  im- 
pressed upon  me,  enough  to  come  down 
through  the  flight  of  years.  The  memory  of 
my  boyhood  companions  is  bright  enough.  I 
can  call  to  mind  Jim  Clark  and  Alvin  Clark, 
who  lived  diagonally  across  the  street  from  us. 
I  used  to  trade  biscuits  and  ham  with  them  for 
pickles. 

After  supper  in  the  evening  at  six  o'clock 
there  would  be  left  a  long  part  of  the  day,  in 
the  summer  time.  We  were  allowed  to  play 
until  it  was  dark.  I  would  leave  the  supper 
table  with  a  biscuit  and  a  piece  of  ham,  that  I 
had  picked  up  and  put  between  two  halves  of 
a  biscuit.  We  were  not  allowed  to  eat  meat 
at  supper  time  when  we  were  small  boys. 

I  would  meet  Jim  and  Alvin  out  at  the  cor- 
ner of  out  lot,  which   was  a   whole   block   of 


so    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

ground.  There  I  would  find  him  or  them  wait- 
ing with  a  cucumber  pickle  four  or  five  inches 
long  and  an  inch  to  an  inch  and  a  half  thick. 
I  would  eat  a  whole  one.  These  pickles  were 
made  with  strong  apple  cider  vinegar,  and  one 
was  enough  to  kill  a  horse,  but  I  ate  it,  not 
once,  but  many  times.  My  system  must  have 
been  gorged  on  vinegar  at  that  time,  for  I 
have  never  been  able  to  eat  pickles  or  take 
acids  in  my  stomach  since,  without  pain,  not 
even  lemonade. 

Up  the  street  that  we  lived  on  were  some 
other  boys:  Gus  Skinner  and  Willie  Skinner  in 
one  family,  with  two  sisters,  Julia  and  Louise. 
Further  up  the  street,  opposite  where  Mr. 
Stevens  lived,  there  was  a  Henry  Skinner.  Mr. 
Stevens  had  a  son  named  Rozell.  This  Henry 
Skinner  and  Rozell  were  both  older  than  1, 
and  I  did  not  play  with  them  so  much. 

The  Fountain  family  lived  within  a  block 
of  us  and  I  was  always  fond  of  Spencer  and 
William,  that  the  boys  called  ^^Bill."  There 
were  George  Deems,  Eddie  Deems,  Bill  Barnes, 
Bob  Barnes,  Leon  Ellis,  Alex  Green,  Jim 
Tucker,  Allen  Blount,  Albert  Bountree,  all 
good  boys.  I  knew  them  and  liked  them  well, 
but  I  met  them  only  at  school. 

The  same  with  Tom  Hackney,  Dug  Hackney 
and  George,  but  Jim  Clark,  Alvin  Clark,  Gus 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  81 

Skinner  and  Spencer  Fountain  and  Bill  Foun- 
tain were  my  chums. 

Willie  Skinner,  Gus'  brother,  was  three  or 
four  years  younger  than  I,  and  Avas  small  for 
his  age  as  I  was,  although  I  was  much  larger 
than  he.  He  thought  the  world  of  me,  and 
so  did  I  of  him,  till  one  day  he  got  me  into 
more  real  trouble  than  I  had  ever  had  before, 
and  after  this  I  would  never  play  with  him, 
the  humiliation  was  too  great,  and  I  did  not 
want  another  piece  of  experience  like  this. 

Here  is  the  story  and  when  you  have  read 
it  you  will  say  with  me  that  I  did  right  to 
cut  his  acquaintance.  He  was  so  young  that 
he  was  hardly  responsible,  but  he  had  some 
imagination  and  powers  of  invention,  so  I 
think  that  he  must  have  known  that  what  he 
did  was  w^rong. 

His  mother  was  a  poor  woman,  who  had  a 
great  struggle  to  raise  these  four  children. 
She  worked  hard  and  sewed  and  took  in  wash- 
ing to  earn  a  living. 

This  son,  Willie,  must  have  seen  her  put 
money  away,  for  he  got  it  all,  a  five  dollar 
gold  piece,  a  two  and  one-half  dollar  gold  piece 
and  two  one  dollar  gold  pieces  and  several 
quarters  and  dimes.  He  brought  it  all  down 
to  me.  He  first  gave  me  some  of  the  silver; 
then  he  took  it  back  and  gave  me  the  five 


82    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

dollar  gold  piece,  and  then  he  took  them  back 
and  gave  me  two  quarters.  He  would  hand 
me  a  piece  of  money  and  then  change  it. 

I  thought  he  was  very  rich  to  have  so  much 
money.  I  asked  him  where  he  got  it.  He  said 
his  mother  gave  it  to  him. 

At  last,  night  w^as  coming  on  and  he  said, 
^'I  must  go.  ''You  had  better  take  this,"  hand- 
ing to  me  the  five  dollar  gold  piece  and  one 
dime,  and  he  said,  "If  anybody  asks  you  w^here 
you  got  it,  tell  them  that  you  found  it  in  a 
goat's  track."  I  could  remember  this  very 
well.  The  next  morning  T  was  showing  my 
money  to  Julian  Rhodes  and  Julian's  father 
came  along  and  asked  me  where  I  got  it.  I 
remembered  what  Willie  Skinner  had  told  me. 
Willie  came  up  as  I  was  about  to  speak;  I 
looked  at  him  and  he  wiggled  his  mouth,  and 
I  understood  it  to  mean  that  I  must  say  what 
he  had  advised  me  to  say.  So  I  said,  "I  found 
it  in  a  goat's  track."  Another  question  came, 
"Where  was  the  goat's  tracks."  Then  I  had 
to  get  out  of  my  trouble  the  best  I  could,  so- 
I  said,  "Down  there  by  the  railroad.'^  Then 
Mr.  Rhodes,  my  brother-in-law,  said,  "Come 
on  and  show  me  where  you  found  it."  I  started 
off  toward  the  railroad,  with  Willie  Skinner 
and  Mr.  Rhodes  following  me:  when  I  got  near 
the  water  station  I  found  a  hog's  track.  It 
must  have  been  a  hog's  track,  because  I  learn- 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  83 

ed  later  that  there  was  only  one  goat  in  town, 
and  he  was  at  the  other  end  of  town  and  was 
kept  locked  up,  so  there  was  no  opportunity 
for  him  to  make  a  track  in  our  part  of  town. 
Mr.  Khodes  said,  "Are  you  sure  that  you  found 
it  here?-'  I  said,  "Yes.''  Willie  Skinner  spoke 
up  and  said,  "Now,  Jess,  you  know  you  are 
telling  a  lie,  for  I  gave  it  to  you." 

1  never  felt  so  bad  in  my  life.  Here  I  was 
caught  telling  a  deliberate  lie,  and  the  very 
boy  who  told  me  to  tell  the  lie  gave  me  away, 
and  humiliated  me  before  my  brother-in-law.  I 
guess  I  turned  two  or  three  colors;  first  pale^ 
then  red;  but  after  the  first  shock  and  pain 
of  the  revelation  passed,  I  commenced  getting 
angry  and  asked,  "Didn't  you  tell  me  to  say 
that?"  He  said,  "No,  I  didn't."  I  did  not 
hesitate,  but  I  jumped  on  him  so  quick  and 
beat  him  so  fast,  if  Mr.  Rhodes  had  not  pulled 
me  off  of  him,  I  do  believe  that  I  would  have 
beat  him  to  death,  I  was  so  angry. 

This  broke  up  our  friendship.  I  did  wrong 
to  give  way  to  my  temper.  I  have  watched 
it  ever  since. 

I  handed  the  money  to  Mr.  Rhodes  and  said, 
"He  stole  the  money  from  somebody,  give  it 
back,  I  don't  Avant  it." 

It  belonged  to  his  mother,  and  my  mother 
sent  it  back  to  her.    My  mother  did  not  whip 


84    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

me  for  it,  but  she  gave  me  some  sound  advice, 
wliich  in  effect  was  that  I  did  not  have  to  do 
or  say  a  mean  or  wrong  thing  for  any  one. 

This  one  vivid  lesson  has  lasted  me  all  of 
my  life,  and  I  have  added  another  corroUary 
to  the  maxim  given  to  me  by  my  mother. 
It  is  this,  if  great  things  are  involved,  ^'you  do 
not  have  to  believe  anything  told  to  you  by 
anybody  until  you  prove  it  to  be  true.'' 

Of  these,  my  boyhood  companions.  Bill 
Barnes,  Leon  Ellis ,  Rozell  Stevens,  Henry 
Skinner,  William  Fountain,  Jim  Tucker,  Alex 
Green  and  Albert  Rountree  are  dead.  They 
were  all  dear  to  me.  May  God  receive  them 
kindly. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  85 


LOOKING  FOR  A  JOB. 

After  my  experience  in  teaching  school,  the 
hardships  and  the  small  remuneration,  I  con- 
cluded that  I  would  try  another  job.  I  was  al- 
ways fond  of  tools,  and  liked  very  much  to 
build  things. 

So  my  father,  noticing  my  mechanical  talent, 
proposed  that  I  should  take  a  place  with  a 
Mr,  John  McBride,  a  Scotchman,  who  had  a 
shop  in  Wilson.  He  was  a  watchmaker  and 
a  jeweler  and  a  fine  workman,  but  he  had  so 
many  friends  in  town  who  visited  him  and  he 
had  just  come  from  the  war;  he  had  spent 
four  years  with  Lee's  army  in  Virginia;  he 
had  gotten  out  of  the  habit  of  working  and 
dreaded  it  so  much  that  he  could  never  be  con- 
tented to  Avork  longer  than  an  hour  or  two  at 
the  time,  just  long  enough  to  pick  up  a  few 
dollars  to  buy  something  to  eat  and  to  drink; 
something  to  treat  his  friends  with  when  they 
came  to  see  him.  So  when  my  father  proposed 
that  he  should  take  me  as  an  apprentice,  I 
am  sure  that  at  heart  he  was  delighted,  but 
the  thrifty  Scotchman  came  immediately  to 
the  surface.     He  wanted  to  know  how  much 


86    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

money  my  father  was  willing  to  pay  bim  for 
teacnmg  me  to  be  a  watcnmaker  and  jew- 
eler. 

My  father  had  no  money  to  pay  with  and 
said  so.  Then  Mr.  McBride  said  that  as  my 
two  brothers  were  in  the  same  company  and 
regiment  with  him  till  one  was  killed  at  the 
battle  of  Seven  Pines,  the  other  one  was  with 
him  for  the  four  years  of  the  war,  he,  Mr.  Mc- 
Bride,  for  the  kind  feeling  he  had  for  my  broth- 
ers, would  take  me  on  trial.  He  could  not  pay 
me  any  wages,  nor  board  me,  so  if  I  took  the 
job  it  meant  a  six-mile  walk  every  day  to  the 
farm,  and  a  cold  dinner  out  of  my  old  tin 
bucket  that  had  been  my  companion  so  long 
The  prospect  of  being  a  good  workman,  and 
some  day  to  have  a  business  of  my  own,  in- 
fluenced me  to  accept  the  position. 

I  did  not  really  know  what  years  of  drudgery 
were  before  me,  so  I  took  the  job,  with  no  pay, 
and  I  must  board  myself.  Mr.  McBride  was 
uniformly  kind  to  me,  and  he  showed  me  all 
that  he  could  teach  me,  but  he  kept  me  busy. 
When  I  went  in  the  shop  there  were  more  than 
one  hundred  clocks  left  there  for  repairs  and 
several  drawers  full  of  watches  and  a  bushel 
of  jewelry.  Mr.  McBride  fixed  up  a  w^ork  bench 
for  me  and  gave  me  the  tools  that  he  thought 
that  T  would  need,  and  started  me  off  to  work 
on  the  clocks.     At  first  I  w^as  awkward  and 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  87 

I  pinched  my  fingers  with  the  plyers  and 
mashed  them  with  the  hammers.  The  drills 
would  slip  oft*  the  piece  of  metal  that  I  was 
drilling  and  pierce  my  hand,  and  many  other 
accidents  happened  to  me  on  account  of  my 
inexperience  with  tools.  But  a  few  months' 
use  of  the  tools  gave  me  the  experience  neces- 
sary and  I  was  becoming  a  good  workman. 
In  one  year  I  had  cleaned  up,  repaired  and 
delivered  nearly  all  the  clocks,  over  half  of 
the  watches  and  all  of  the  jewelry. 

At  first  I  went  home  every  night,  but  this 
was  too  much  walking  to  suit  me,  so  I  got  a 
bigger  dinner  bucket  and  filled  it  with  such 
things  as  I  knew  would  keep  for  three  days; 
after  this  I  went  home  Wednesdays  and  Sat- 
urdays. One  of  the  friends  who  visited  Mr. 
McBride  daily  was  a  Dr.  Stith,  also  bachelor 
as  Mr.  McBride  was.  On  one  occasion  he 
brought  in  Mr.  McBride's  back  room,  where 
there  was  one  bed,  a  man  who  had  been  in  a 
fight,  and  was  stabbed  in  the  back  just  below 
the  right  shoulder  blade.  Dr.  Stith  was  a  good 
physician,  but  a  poor  surgeon.  The  sight  of 
blood  made  him  sick  at  the  stomach,  so  he 
said.  I  had  seen,  on  the  farm,  one  of  the 
negroes  trim  up  little  boar  pigs  and  spay  the 
little  sow  pigs  and  sew  them  up  with  a  crooked 
needle,  and  heard  all  the  squealing  and  fuss 
that  was  made  during  the  operation.     So  the 


88    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

sight  of  a  man  with  a  little  hole  in  his  back 
did  not  make  me  sick  at  the  stomach.  So  I 
volunteered  to  sew  up  the  w^ound  in  the  man's 
back.  The  doctor  was  glad  to  get  rid  of  the 
job,  so  he  told  me  what  to  do  and  how  to  do 
it. 

He  dissolved  some  corrosive  sublimate  in  a 
bowl  of  w^ater  and  had  me  wash  the  needles 
and  silk  thread  in  it.  I  also  wet  my  hands 
in  the  water,  and  I  sewed  up  the  cut  in  the 
man's  back  and  the  man  got  well.  This  one 
act  was  the  turning  point  in  my  life.  All 
night  I  was  rehearsing  everything  that  I  had 
done,  every  tiiue  I  Avaked  up  I  w^ould  think  up 
other  cases  that  I  would  operate  on.  So  the 
long  and  short  of  it  was  that  I  started  in  to 
read  medicine  with  Dr.  Stith.  I  said,  that 
I  would  rather  be  a  doctor  or  surgeon  than  to 
be  a  watchmaker  and  jeweler.  How  these 
plans  worked  out  you  will  see  as  you  read  these 
memoirs. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  89 


CHANGING  MY  0(XUPATION. 

When  I  had  been  working  with  Mr.  McBride 
for  nearly  two  years,  and  had  become  quite  an 
expert  in  repairing  clocks,  watches,  sewing- 
machines  and  jewelry,  the  novelty  of  the  busi- 
ness had  worn  off  and  I  could  see  several  very 
disagreeable  features  connected  with  my  sit- 
uation. Most  of  my  troubles  were  of  the  phy- 
ical  kind  and  were  felt  in  the  way  of  discom- 
forts. I  was  living  on  cold  food  almost  en- 
tirely and  this  was  stale  four  days  out  of  the 
six  days  that  I  worked.  On  Sundays  I  was  at 
home  in  the  country  and  had  warm  food.  I 
would  fill  up  like  a  boa  constrictor  so  that  the 
quantity  I  ate  on  some  occasions  attracted 
the  attention  of  my  father,  who  remarked 
that  he  "believed  that  boy  (meaning  me)  was 
hollow  all  the  way  down  His  legs.''  The  re- 
mark  aroused  a  laugh  at  my  expense,  but  it 
was  no  laughing  matter  to  me. 

Another  very  disagreeable  feature  of  my  situ- 
ation was  my  sleeping  quarters.  The  back  room 
had  one  bed  and  a  short  bench,  a  "fireplace,"  the 
old  fashioned  kind  with  andirons  for  a  wood  log 
fire,   a  shelf  and   a  looking  glass   and  three 


90    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

or  four  chairs.  When  more  company  came 
than  there  were  chairs  for,  some  of  them  would 
sit  on  the  bed,  some  on  the  bench;  if  there 
were  more  company  still,  they  would  sit  on 
boxes  secured  from  the  stores  near  at  hand. 
Almost  every  night  we  had  a  levee  or  party, 
it  might  be  called,  not  a  formal  affair,  but  very 
informal  affair.  It  might  very  safely  be  called 
a  ^-smoker,"  for  nearly  every  one  smoked.  Mr. 
McBride  kept  on  hand  a  box  of  Durham  smok- 
ing tobacco,  and  a  dozen  or  so  pipes,  old 
fashion  clay  pipes  with  reed  root  stems  and 
fig  stems,  a  limb  of  fig  as  large  as  your  middle 
finger  and  about  eighteen  inches  long.  The 
pith  had  been  burned  out  with  a  red-hot  wire. 
This  made  a  pipe  stem  that  was  very  aromatic 
and  added  a  delicious  flavor  to  the  smoke 
of  the  tobacco.  These  "smokers''  were  a  daily 
occurrence,  and  if  you  can  conceive  a  room 
about  twenty  feet  square  with  eight  to  twelve 
men  smoking  in  it  every  evening  from  8  to  11 
o'clock,  then  you  will  know  the  kind  of  a  place 
I  had  to  sleep  in. 

In  addition  to  the  smoking  somebody  would 
send  out  to  the  nearest  saloon  and  get  a  bottle 
of  whiskey  or  brandy  and  nearly  all  would 
take  one  or  two  drinks  during  the  evening.  The 
windows  and  doors  were  nearly  always  open; 
without  this  new  air  coming  through  the  room 
all  would  have  been  killed  with  the  smoke 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  91 

and  carbonic  acid  gas.  We  had  a  big  fire  of 
oak  logs  and  each  one  would  back  up  to  the 
tire  for  a  warming.  When  bed  time  came 
about,  many  would  go  home,  but  frequently 
we  would  have  as  many  as  six  to  stay  all  night. 
One  bed  and  one  short  bench  for  six  to  sleep 
on.  On  these  occasions,  I  being  only  the  hired 
boy,  the  floor  was  my  bed,  or  a  chair;  some 
times  I  would  try  the  floor  for  a  part  of  the 
night,  and  when  I  felt  my  bones  were  coming 
through  the  flesh,  I  would  get  up,  fix  the  fire 
and  sit  up  the  rest  of  the  night,  nodding  as 
best  I  could. 

None  of  us  undressed  to  go  to  bed.  Some  of 
the  four  who  slept  on  the  bed  cross-wise  were 
just  as  uncomfortable  as  I  was. 

They  did  not  seem  to  care  for  the  discom- 
forts. If  I  had  had  a  bed  all  to  myself,  as  I 
knew  some  of  these  men  had,  I  certainly  would 
not  have  undergone  the  pain  and  discomforts 
that  they  did  to  get  the  questionable  pleas- 
ures that  they  seemed  to  enjoy  so  much. 

I  had  been  with  Mr.  McBride  only  a  short 
time  when  he  discovered  that  I  could  handle 
a  razor  almost  like  a  barber,  so  he  was  glad  to 
have  me  shave  him.  As  soon  as  his  various 
friends  saw  that  I  could  sHave  a  man  without 
cutting  his  throat,  they  all  wanted  to  be 
shaved.     These  friends  would  commence  com- 


92    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

ing  in  soon  after  12  o'clock  noon  on  Saturday, 
and  would  continue  to  come  till  the  last  of  our 
regulars  had  come  in  and  got  shaved  by  the 
free  barber.  It  is  a  curious  thing  that  not  one 
of  these  men  ever  offered  me  a  tip  or  a  pres- 
ent for  all  this  gratuitous  service. 

Had  these  men  all  been  clean  and  genteel, 
my  task  would  not  have  been  such  an  oner- 
ous one,  but  they  were  mechanics,  bricklayers, 
carpenters,  cabinet  makers  and  one  tinner  and 
one  butcher.  They  would  come  to  me  right 
from  their  work,  dirty,  sweaty  and  begrimed, 
and  I  shaved  them  all  alike,  though  I  noticed  a 
great  difference  in  the  odor  of  their  breaths.  I 
could  smell  garlic,  cabbage,  tobacco,  whisky, 
bile  and  many  other  combinations  that  an  ex- 
pert chemist  could  not  name.  There  was  one 
among  the  rest  who  washed  his  teeth  with 
Sozodont,  and  only  one  man  who  washed  his 
teeth  at  all.  This  one  man  had  a  sweet  breath 
and  he  was  the  only  one  that  I  shaved  with 
pleasure.  The  others  I  shaved  because  they 
were  McBride's  friends. 

One  Saturday  a  man  by  the  name  of  Jack 
HajG^n  came  in  with  the  rest  to  be  shaved.  He 
was  almost  drunk  and  was  very  nervous.  He 
kept  telling  me  not  to  cut  him. 

He  l)ad  a  very  stiff  beard  and  an  over- 
hanging chin,  that  is,  there  were  hollow 
places  under  it  that  made  it  difficult  to  shave 
him,    but    I   used   lots   of   soap    and    got   his 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  93 

beard  real  soft  and  had  little  trouble  in  giv- 
ing him  a  clean  shave.  On  Sunday  I  heard 
through  the  man  we  sent  to  town  for  our  mail 
that  Jack  Hagin  was  on  a  big  drunk  and  had 
delirium  tremens. 

Monday  morning,  when  I  came  to  town,  I 
passed  by  the  livery  stables  and  saw  a  crowd 
gathered  around  the  office,  so  I  stopped  to  in- 
quire the  cause  of  the  commotion  and  was  told 
that  Jack  Hagin  Avas  in  there,  that  he  had 
been  out  in  the  country  since  Saturday,  that 
he  must  have  been  running  through  the  briar 
patches,  for  his  clothes  were  nearly  all  torn 
from  his  body.     I  got  up  as  close  as  I  could 
and  looked  in.     There  was  Jack  Hagin  on  his 
knees,  praying,   using  only  the   words,   "God 
have  mercy,  God  have  mercy,"  and  kept  re- 
peating these  words.     Soon  I  saw  Dr.   Stith 
coming,  and  I  waited  to  see  what  he  would  do 
for  Jack.    The  doctor  told  some  one  to  take  off 
Jack's  coat  and  roll  up  his  sleeves,  which  was 
promptly  done.     I  saw  the  doctor  with  some 
kind  of  an  instrument  in  his  hand,  I  could  not 
see  what  it  was,  but  I  saw  him  take  hold  of 
Jack-s  arm  and  mash  it  with  one  hand  and 
rub  it  with  the  other.     I  know  now  that  Dr. 
Stith  gave  him    a    hypodermic    injection     of 
morphine.    The  result  was  almost  magical.    A 
change  came  so  quick.    Jack  gradually  quieted 
down.    His  prayers  became  weaker  and  weak- 


94    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

er  until  I  could  hardly  hear  him  at  all.  In  less 
than  fifteen  minutes  I  could  not  hear  him.  I 
saw  the  doctor  come  out.  I  walked  along  with 
him  and  asked  him  if  Jack  would  get  well. 
He  said,  ''iS^o,  he  is  dead."  I  never  had  a 
greater  shock  in  my  life.  The  next  day  I 
shaved  Jack  again  for  the  last  time,  and  we 
buried  him.  The  follow^ing  Saturday  w^hen  all 
my  free  customers  came  along  for  their  ac- 
customed shave,  I  told  them  that  I  had  quit 
the  shaving  business,  but  if  any  of  them  died 
and  I  was  sent  for,  that  I  would  come  and 
shave  them,  but  as  long  as  they  were  alive 
they  could  shave  themselves.  This  ended  my 
connection  with  the  shaving  business,  as  well 
as  the  watchmaker  and  jew^elry  business. 

I  w^as  offered  a  position  as  a  clerk  in  a 
general  stock  store  at  a  salary  of  five  dol- 
lars a  month  and  board  myself.  As  my  mother 
owned  the  ^'Battle  House"  in  the  town,  my 
brother  and  I  persuaded  her  to  move  back  to 
town,  which  she  did  in  1868. 

The  man  I  started  to  clerk  for  was  Mr. 
Joseph  Kincaid,  a  son-in-law  of  Mr.  Josiah 
Blackwell.  Mr.  Blackwell  was  a  Boston  man, 
and  a  fine  business  man.  He  had  trained  Mr. 
Kincaid  in  business,  and  Mr.  Kincaid  was  well 
posted  in  his  line,  and  a  very  successful  man. 
He  had  married  Mr.  BlackwelPs  only  daugh- 
ter and  Mr.  Blackwell  had  taken  his  name  out 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  95 

of  the  firm  and  it  was  simply  Joseph  Kincaid. 
I  believed  then  as  now,  that  Mr.  Blackwell  fur- 
nished the  money  to  establish  the  business. 
His  interest  in  the  business  was  untiring.    He 
was  at  the  store,  morning,  noon    and    night. 
There  was  nothing  in  the  store  that  he  did 
not  know.     His    energy    and    industry    were 
prodigious.    Every  rainy  day  when  there  Avere 
few  customers  coming  in,  Mr.  Blackwell  would 
begin  at  one  end  of  the  store  and  throw  down 
on  the  counter  every  piece  of  goods  that  was 
on  the  shelves,  saying  there  was  a  certain  piece 
of  goods  he  was  looking  for.     When  he  got 
them  all  down  on  the  counter,  he  would  say 
to  Albert  Davis,  the  other  clerk,  and  to  me, 
^^Well,  boys,  see  how  well  you  can  wipe  off 
those  shelves  and  arrange  those  goods  again.'' 
This  was  an  all-day  job.     Albert  would  look 
at  me  and  wink  and  say,  "I  knew  he  was  go- 
ing to  do  that,  he  does  it  every  rainy  day.    We 
are  in  for  it,  so  here  goes."    Then  both  of  us 
would  put  in  a  good  day's  work. 

I  know  now  that  that  was  Mr.  BlackwelFs 
plan  to  keep  the  store  clean  as  well  as  mak- 
ing us  familiar  with  the  whereabouts  of  every 
article  in  the  store.  Sometimes  now  I  go  into 
a  store  in  St.  Louis  and  ask  for  an  article  and 
wait  and  wait  for  the  clerk  to  find  it,  and 
sometimes  I  get  disgusted  and  leave  the  store. 
There  is,  of  course,  a  difference  in  the  size  of 


96    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

the  store,  and  in  the  number  of  articles  kept 
in  stock.  When  I  clerked  in  that  store,  I  could 
go  into  the  store  in  the  dark  and  lay  my  hand 
on  almost  any  article  that  a  customer  would 
call  for. 

Mr.  Blackwell  was  an  old  man,  but  he  was 
a  very  successful  salesman.  I  would  be  near 
enough  to  hear  him  on  many  occasions  when  he 
would  be  selling  something  to  a  customer. 
Whether  it  was  dry  goods,  hats,  shoes,  cloth- 
ing, groceries  or  hardware,  I  noticed  that  he 
always  had  a  story  to  tell  about  the  material, 
or  about  the  process  of  manufacture.  I  picked 
up  many  of  his  stories  and  would  use  them 
myself  in  trying  to  sell  goods.  Some  of  his 
stories  Avould  convince  my  customer  and  some 
of  them  would  not.  When  I  failed,  I  would  say 
to  myself  that  I  did  not  get  the  story  exact  or 
that  I  could  not  tell  it  so  effectively  as  Mr. 
Blackwell  did.  One  day  a  countryman  came 
into  the  store  and  wanted  to  buy  an  iron  pot. 
T  started  in  to  tell  the  man  the  same  story 
that  I  had  heard  Mr.  Blackwell  tell  on  a  former 
occasion.  I  told  him  that  this  particular  pot 
was  made  in  Baltimore  and  had  just  twice  as 
much  iron  in  it  as  the  same  ware  made  in  New 
York  City.  That  nearly  all  the  pots  in  town  but 
ours  came  from  New  York  City,  and  were  made 
too  light  and  of  course,  being  so  light,  would 
only  last  a  short  time,  while  our  pots,  being 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  97 

made  in  Baltimore  and  very  heavy,  would  last 
a  life  time.     The  countryman  said  he  did  not 
know  about  that,  that  he  had  looked  at  some 
pots  at  Rountree's  and  he    could    see  no  dif- 
ference.   About  this  time  Mr.  Blackwell  came 
along.     He  had  heard  a  part  of  what  I  had 
said  and  he  had  heard  all  of  what  the  coun- 
tryman had  said.     So  he  came  up  and  patted 
me  on  the  shoulder  and  said,  ^'The  still  sow 
gets  the  swill,  Jesse,"  and  he  took  the  case  out 
of  my  hands  and  went  on  and  sold  the  pot. 
After  the  transaction  was  over,  I    saw    Mr. 
Blackwell  and  asked  him  why  he  interfered 
with  me  while  I  was  trying  to  sell.    I  told  Mr. 
Blackwell  that  what  I  had  said  to  the  man 
was  almost  word  for  word  what  I  had  heard 
him  say  to    another   man.      Mr.     Blackweirs 
answer  was  characteristic.     He  said,  "In  the 
first  place  you  got  your  man  into  the  argu- 
mentative mood,  and  he  was  ready  to  leave  the 
store.     So  to  prevent  this,  I  (Mr.  Blackwell) 
had  to  side  with  the  man."     He  said  that  he 
had     learned     that     Rountree's     price     was 
eighty-five  cents  and  he  had  made  the  price 
eighty  cents,  and  the  man  had  bought  to  save 
the  five  cents.     He  said  further  that  if  the 
man  had  gotten  out  of  the  store  and  gone  back 
to  Rountree's  store,  that  he  would  have  re- 
peated my  story  and  Mr.  Rountree  or  one  of 
his  clerks  would  have  told  him  that  Kincaid's 


98    TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

man  was  lying,  for  the  pots  were  not  made  in 
Baltimore  at  all,  but  were  made  in  Richmond, 
Va..  and  said  further  that  this  piece  of  in- 
formation would  have  done  his  store  much 
damage,  and  when  1  asked  him  w^hy  he  would 
tell  such  a  story  then,  he  said,  ^'When  you 
want  to  tell  a  story,  you  must  pick  your  man; 
get  a  man  who  wanted  to  hear  it,  and  then  you 
can  tell  it  without  doing  harm,  but  never  tell 
a  story  to  a  man  when  you  see  that  he  does 
not  want  to  hear  it."  He  said  further,  ''I  can 
see  that,  Jesse,  and  you  cannot;  but  you  are 
learning." 

One  day  a  countryman  came  in  and  wanted 
two  jjounds  of  sugar.  I  went  over  to  the  bar- 
rel and  got  a  scoop  full  and  putting  some  pa 
per  in  the  scales,  I  poured  in  the  sugar  unti] 
the  two  pounds  were  weighed,  as  I  thought, 
liberally  and  accurately.  I  looked  over  to- 
ward  Mr.  Blackwell  and  noticed  that  he  was 
watching  me  closely. 

When  the  man  had  paid  me  and  gone  out, 
Mr.  Blackwell  came  over  to  me  and  asked  how 
much  sugar  the  man  had  bought,  and  I  an- 
swered, "Two  pounds."  Ho  asked  me  again 
how  much  sugar  I  had  given  the  man,  and  T 
answered,  "Two  pounds." 

He  said,  "Go  and  bring  the  man  back  and 
>veigh  the  sugar  over  again.  I  think  you  made 
a  mistake." 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  99 

My  heart  jumped  up  in  my  throat,  and  I  felt 
like  telling  Mr.  Blackwell  that  if  he  wanted 
that  man  brought  back  and  the  sugar  weighed 
again,  he  could  go  and  do  it  himself,  but  I 
curbed  my  temper  and  choked  down  the  words 
that  were  coming  up  in  my  throat,  and  w^ent 
out  after  the  man.  He  was  three  blocks  away 
when  I  overtook  him  and  I  said  in  my  sweet 

est  tones,  ^'Mr. ,  my  boss  thinks  that  I 

made  a  mistake  in  weighing  that  sugar.  Would 
you  mind  coming  back  to  the  store  with  me  and 
let  me  weigh  it  again?'' 

He  did  not  want  to  do  it,  but  he  saw  the 
pain  and  anxiety  in  my  face,  so  he  went  back 
with  me  and  I  weighed  the  sugar,  and  it 
weighed  two  pounds  and  two  ounces. 

Mr.  Blackwell  did  not  take  any  of  the  sugar 
out  of  the  package.  He  told  the  man  that  he 
was  welcome  to  the  two  ounces,  and  he  thank- 
ed him  for  coming  back.  After  the  man  was 
gone,  he  turned  to  me  and  asked,  "How  much 
sugar  was  in  the  barrel?"  I  looked  at  the 
marks  and  answered,  "Two  hundred  and 
twelve  pounds." 

Mr.  Blackwell  then  asked  if  I  was  selling 
the  whole  barrel  of  sugar  at  the  same  price 
and  giving  two  pounds  and  two  ounces  each 
time  I  weighed  the  sugar,  how  much  would 
the  sugar  bring?    I  had  to  put  on  my  studying 


100      TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

cap  and  after  some  calculating,  I  answered, 
^'Eleven  dollars  and  eighty-eight  cents." 

Then  Mr.  Blackwell  asked  me  what  the  bar- 
rel of  sugar  cost,  and  I  answered  at  five  cents 
per  pound,  not  counting  the  freight,  it  cost 
ten  dollars  and  sixty  cents. 

He  then  asked  me  how  much  the  barrel  of 
sugar  would  have  brought  had  I  w^eighed  the 
whole  barrel  properly.  I  answered,  "Twelve 
dollars  and  seventy-two  cents." 

He  then  asked  me  what  the  profit  was  on 
a  barrel  of  sugar  weighed  as  I  had  weighed 
it.  I  answered,  "One  dollar  and  twenty-eight 
cents." 

He  then  asked,  "What  would  have  been  the 
profit  on  a  barrel  of  sugar  had  you  weighed 
it  properly?"  I  answered,  "Two  dollars  and 
twelve  cents." 

He  then  asked  what  Avas  the  loss  by  my  way 
of  weighing,    I  answered,  "Eighty-four  cents." 

He  then  said,  "Now,  Jesse,  don't  think  for  a 
minute  that  I  am  bothering  about  this  partic- 
ular eight-four  cents.  A  merchant  is  not  in 
business  for  his  health,  but  for  the  profit  in  his 
business.  There  are  some  things  we  sell  as 
an  advertisement,  and  sugar  is  one  of  these. 
There  is  no  profit  in  sugar  at  one  cent  ad- 
vance over  the  cost,  for  this  one  cent  or  two 
dollars  and  twelve  cents  per  barrel,  gives  no 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  101 

profit  after  the  freight  is  paid.  I  do  not  call 
your  attention  to  the  bad  way  of  weigh- 
ing for  the  eighty-four  cents  we  lose,  but  for 
the  principle  involved  in  the  weighing  itself. 
When  you  balance  the  scales  you  have  weighed 
the  thing  you  have  in  the  scales,  but  when 
you  put  in  something  till  the  scales  go  down, 
you  do  not  know  how  much  you  have  weighed. 

^'Suppose  you  were  selling  arsenic  on  a  doc- 
tor's prescription.  If  you  give  what  is  called 
^down  weight'  you  kill  somebody." 

Now,  this  piece  of  experience  was  about  the 
most  humiliating  that  I  have  ever  been  called 
upon  to  endure  and  at  that  time  it  so  worked 
on  my  feelings,  and  I  resented  it  so  much  that 
it  was  the  actual  cause  of  my  resignation,  but 
it  made  an  impression  on  me  that  all  the  in- 
tervening years  have  not  been  able  to  blot  out. 
Now,  I  can  see  that  it  was  one  of  the  best 
lessons  ever  taught  to  me  by  any  one,  and  I 
know  it  has  served  me  in  more  ways  than  one 
all  these  years. 


102       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 


ANOTHER  CHANGE. 

The  ijain  and  humiliation  given  to  me  by  the 
last  experience  started  me  looking  for  another 
job. 

The  six  months  spent  under  a  merchant  like 
Mr.  Josiah  BlackAvell  is  worth  more  to  a  clerk 
than  several  years  with  a  less  competent  man. 
So,  when  Dr.  Peacock,  of  Stantonsburg,  N.  C, 
asked  me  if  I  thought  I  was  capable  of  mark- 
ing a  stock  of  goods  and  keeping  a  country 
store  in  good  condition,  I  told  him,  *^Yes,  I 
could  do  it."  So  he  hired  me  at  one  hundred 
dollars  per  year,  and  gave  me  my  board.  T 
slept  in  the  store  house  and  boarded  in  his 
family.  I  had  no  trouble  keeping  the  store  to 
suit  him.  I  did  everything  connected  with  the 
store,  from  making  out  orders  for  goods  need- 
ed, to  marking  them,  selling  them,  collecting 
the  bills,  keeping  the  books,  paying  the  bills 
and  all  the  other  little  things  coming  up  in 
connection  with  the  store,  as  keeping  the  ac- 
counts of  all  his  farm  hands,  issuing  rations 
to  them  on  Saturday  evenings  and  selling  to 
them  on  credit  to  the  amount  that  they  would 
be  entitled  to  at  the  end  of  the  year,  giving 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  103 

to  them  in  goods,  a  little  at  the  time,  as  the 
value  of  their  labor  increased  and  the  season 
advanced  to  a  close. 

Dr.  Peacock  told  me  time  and  again  that  he 
was  much  pleased  with  my  work,  and  he  hoped 
that  1  would  remain  with  him  for  some  time 
to  come.  This  was  more  than  pleasant  to 
me,  for  the  doctor  had  a  daughter  named  Mol- 
lie  whom  I  thought  was  the  sweetest  piece 
of  flesh  I  had  ever  seen,  and  my  admiration 
was  growing  every  day.  I  do  not  call  it  love, 
for  Mollie  was  only  a  child,  thirteen  or  four- 
teen years  old,  a  school  girl,  and  had  never 
even  thought  of  such  a  thing  as  having  a  sweet- 
heart. I  would  simply  look  on  her  with  the 
eyes  of  admiration  as  being  a  coming  lady  that 
I  would  like  to  kuow  more  of,  but  I  saw  very 
little  of  her,  and  the  year  passed  so  quickly 
that  the  rolling  of  time  and  its  changing  events 
carried  me  on  to  other  places  and  other  oc- 
cupations so  quickly  that  she  passed  out  of 
my  mind  and  life.  Afterward  she  married  a 
very  handsome  young  man  named  Billy  By- 
num,  whose  life  was  ended  when  he  was  still 
quite  young,  leaving  my  first  love  a  widow, 
and  the  pleasant  memory  has  remained,  but 
T  have  not  seen  Mollie  in  all  these  years,  and 
sometimes  I  wonder  if  she  ever  knew  that 
there  was  sucH  a  tender  place  in  my  heart  for 
her. 


104       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

My  year  as  a  clerk  with  Doctor  Peacock 
coming  to  a  close  and  my  attention  being  re- 
quired at  home  on  account  of  the  death  of  my 
oldest  brother,  I  gave  up,  reluctantly,  my  po- 
sition and  went  back  home  to  Wilson. 

The  years  1869  and  1870  I  spent  in  Wil- 
son. My  mother  rented  out  the  "Battle  House'' 
to  Mrs.  Richard  Blount,  reserving  rooms  for 
herself,  my  brother,  CuUen,  and  me.  Mrs. 
Blount  gave  to  my  mother  her  board  and  also 
the  board  of  my  brother  as  payment  for  the 
rent,  and  when  I  came  in  for  board,  Mrs. 
Blount  said  that  I  was  not  included  in  the 
contract,  but  my  mother  insisted  that  she  stip- 
ulated he?  family,  and  that  I  was  her  youngest 
son  and  child  and  must  be  included.  So  a  com- 
promise was  made,  by  which  I  was  to  get  my 
board,  but  I  was  to  visit  the  night  trains  and 
drum  or  solicit  customers  for  the  hotel.  This 
I  did;  for  the  two  years  I  would  be  present  at 
the  train  that  arrived  at  11:30  p.  m.,  when  it 
was  on  time,  and  at  the  train  which  arrived  at 
2:30  a.  m.,  when  it  was  on  time.  But  these 
Southern  trains  w^ere  then,  in  1869  and  1870, 
just  like  the  Southern  trains  now,  in  1910,  very 
liable  to  be  one,  two  or  three  hours  late.  So 
sometimes  I  would  not  get  my  clothes  off  to 
go  to  bod  for  several  days  at  the  time. 

I  was  busy  all  day  helping  the  railroad 
agent,  ^Ir.  John  Daniel,  load  the  cars  with  col;- 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  105 

ton  and  turpentine  and  rosin,  the  staples  that 
made  up  the  chief  articles  of  shipment  from 
up  and  down  the  Wilmington  &  Weldon  R.  R. 
Wilson.  At  night  I  was  assistant  telegraph 
operator,  and  did  much  in  this  line  as  a  relief 

Besides  these  occupations,  I  had  never  fail- 
ed to  keep  up  my  study  of  medicine.  All  my 
leisure  hours  I  was  reading  Gray's  Anatomy, 
Leidy's  Anatomy,  Woods'  Materia  Medica, 
Flint's,  Thomas'  and  Bigelow's  Practice." 

Dr.  Stith  told  me  that  I  knew  more  about 
medicine  than  many  doctors,  but  he  said,  "You 
must  have  a  diploma  to  practice  medicine.'' 
I  asked  him  where  I  must  get  this  "diploma." 
He  said,  Baltimore,  Philadelphia  and  New 
York  City  all  had  medical  colleges,  and  gave 
diplomas  to  their  graduates.  I  asked  him  how 
much  it  would  cost  to  attend  the  lectures  and 
graduate  in  these  colleges,  and  he  told  me 
he  would  find  out. 

So  he  wrote  to  all  of  them  asking  for  their 
terms  and  learned  that  Baltimore  was  the 
cheapest,  and  their  price  for  two  years,  in- 
cluding board,  would  be  six  hundred  dollars. 
It  might  have  been  six  thousand  as  far  as  I 
was  concerned,  for  I  did  not  have  the  six 
hundred  dollars  and  saw  no  prospect  of  hav- 
ing six  hundred  dollars  for  some  years  to 
come.     I  was  very  economical  and  saved  all 


106      TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

the  money  that  I  could  lay  my  hands  on,  but 
somehow,  every  time  I  had  about  a  hundred 
dollars  on  hand,  some  calamity  would  come  to 
some  of  my  sisters  or  to  my  nieces  and  they 
would  ask  for  help  and  my  savings  would  dis 
appear  like  frost  before  the  rising  sun.  1  found 
it  absolutely  impossible  to  get  together  more 
than  one  hundred  dollars  at  one  time.  So, 
in  my  despar,  I  said  that  I  could  never  get  to 
be  a  doctor,  because  I  could  never  get  together 
at  one  time  as  much  as  six  hundred  dollars. 
The  two  years  passed  quickly  by  and  then  an- 
other opening  or  opportunity  came  to  me. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  10? 


ANOTHER  CHANGE. 

In  March,  1871,  a  lightning  rod  company  came 
to  town.  There  were  four  wagons,  all  red,  with 
their  long  ladders  sticking  out  or  protruding 
from  behind. 

One  day  one  of  the  managers  of  the  light- 
ning rod  company,  a  Mr.  James  W.  Lee,  came 
in  the  freight  office  to  pay  freight  on  some 
rods  that  had  arrived  for  him.  I  handed  the 
bill  to  him  and  took  his  money  for  the  freight. 
He  looked  at  me  very  attentively  and  said, 
"Young  man,  why  don't  you  get  out  of  here  and 
get  well  and  be  somebody?"  I  said  that  I  was 
looking  for  a  job  that  would  take  me  out  doors^ 
and  give  me  something  to  do,  so  that  I  could 
earn  a  living  and  get  well  at  the  same  time. 
He  said  he  needed  a  salesman  as  one  of  his 
men  had  gotten  drunk  and  he  had  discharged 
him.  He  said  if  I  would  sell  lightning  rods 
that  he  would  give  fifty  dollars  per  month, 
but,  if  I  could  not  sell  lightning  rods  he  could 
not  give  me  more  than  twenty-five  dollars  a 
month,  and  the  last  job  was  that  of  hostler 
or  helper  to  the  salesman.  I  told  him  that 
I  was  willing  to  take  either  job.    That  I  would 


108       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

try  to  be  a  salesman  at  first  and  if  I  failed  I 
would  take  the  next  job.  I  knew  that  I  could 
not  be  put  in  a  worse  position  than  that  I  oc- 
cupied at  that  time.  I  look  back  now  at  what  I 
did  at  that  time  and  considering  that  I  was 
sick  all  the  time,  was  never  well  a  whole  day 
at  the  time,  having  chills  every  day  or  every 
other  day  and  fever  at  night,  it  is  a  wonder 
that  I  did  anything  or  learned  anything  at  all. 

Mr.  Lee  must  have  had  pity  on  me,  for  I  at 
that  time  gave  little  promise  of  any  success 
for  myself  or  him  either.  I  was  very  homely, 
had  pimples  all  over  my  face  and  was  the 
color  of  a  pumpkin  and  weighed  less  than  one 
hundred  pounds,  and  wore  a  suit  of  clothes 
made  out  of  a  woolen  blanket  woven  by  the  ne- 
groes on  my  mother's  farm.  My  hat  was  a 
gray  one,  also  a  home  product.  It  had  gone 
to  seed,  for  its  crown  ran  up  into  a  cone,  giv- 
ing it  the  appearance  of  a  fooFs  cap.  My  shoes 
were,  what  we  called  "stitched  downs,"  and 
made  at  home  by  the  negroes.  Everything 
I  wore  was  "homespun"  and  I  was  about  as 
green  a  specimen  as  could  be  found  in  the 
whole   South. 

None  of  these  things  deterred  Mr.  Lee.  He 
said,  "Come  on,"  and  I  went. 

My  mother  said  she  hated  to  see  me  go,  for 
I  was  so   delicate  I  needed  a   doctor   all   the 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  109 

time  and  I  also  needed  her  watchful  care  to 
keep  me  in  the  right  way. 

We  got  on  the  lightning  rod  wagon   and 
started  on  the  road  toward  Tarboro,  and  about 
ten  miles   from   Wilson,  Mr.   Lee   stopped   at 
some  house  and  said  to  me,  ''Go  in  and  see 
if  you  can  sell  him  a  lightning  rod."    So  I  went 
in  and  when  I  hollered  as  loud  as  I  could, 
*'Hey,  hey,  hello,"  at  last  I  saw  a  man  come  out 
of  the  house,  and  he  beckoned  me  to  come  on 
up  to  the  house.    So  I  went  on.  My  heart  was 
beating  funny  and  I  felt  like  I  would  choke, 
but  I  kept  on.     The  gentleman  was  Mr.  Rob- 
ert Pitt,  whose  daughter  had  been  going  to 
school  in  Wilson.     He  met  me  in  a  pleasant 
way  and  I  told  him  my  name  and  also  told  him 
why  I  had  given  up  my  job  in  the  telegraph 
office  and  had  gone  out  as  a  lightning  rod 
salesman.     I  told  him  that  the  company  that 
I  was  working  for  was  a  rich  one,  and  handled 
a  good  quality  of  rods  and  if  he  had  any  idea 
of  ever  patting  rods  on  his  house,  that  now 
was  a  good  time.    That  if  he  did  not  have  the 
money  convenient,  my  company  would  carry 
the  account  until  Christmas.     Mr.   Pitt  said 
he  never  thought  of  putting  up  lightning  rods 
but  as  we  were  there  he  would  have  it  done. 
So  it  turned  out  that  he  wanted  rods  on  his 
residence  and  on  his  barn  and  gin  house,  which 
all  together  amounted  to  over  two  hundred 


110       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

dollars.  We  worked  all  the  afternoon  and  a 
part  of  the  next  morning.  Mr.  Lee  did  most  of 
the  work,  but  I  watched  him  and  handed  to 
him  the  right  tool  and  the  right  piece 
of  the  fixtures.  When  he  had  put  up  one 
rod,  beginning  at  the  top,  when  the  rod 
had  been  brought  to  the  ground,  he 
wanted  a  hole  drilled  in  the  ground,  so  he 
cut  a  small  hole  with  his  hatchet  and  filled 
it  with  water  and  took  a  section  of  rod  about 
ten  feet  long  and  commenced  to  churn  it  up 
and  down  in  the  hole  with  the  water  in  it. 
When  he  had  drilled  the  hole  about  two  feet 
down,  he  said  to  me,  "Now,  Jesse,  here  is 
Avhere  you  can  get  some  strength.  You  go  on 
now  and  drill  this  hole  as  deep  as  you  can.'' 
So  I  took  the  tow  sack  he  gave  me,  wrapped 
it  around  the  piece  of  rod  and  started  to 
drill  the  hole.  The  soil  was  sandy  on  top  and 
the  rod  passed  on  down  into  clay,  but  the  sand 
fell  down  into  the  hole  that  the  rod  made  and 
thgugh  the  hole  was  kept  full  of ^  water,  the 
rod  would  get  stuck  and  was  very  hard  to  pull 
out.  After  w^orking  and  straining  at  it  for 
ten  or  fifteen  minutes  I  was  almost  exhausted. 
I  did  not  realize  how  weak  I  was  and  before 
I  knew  what  was  to  happen,  I  felt  a  dizzines8 
in  my  head  and  the  next  thing  I  felt  some  one 
Aviping  my  face  with  a  wet  tow^el  or  handker- 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  Ill 

chief.  I  had  fainted  and  fallen  on  the  ground 
from  sheer  weakness.  Mr.  Lee  said,  "You  poor 
little  devil,  you  are  not  able  to  work."  I 
thought  this  meant  that  I  was  to  be  discharg- 
ed. So  I  said,  "I  am  not  very  strong,  but  give 
me  a  chance.    I  will  grow  stronger  as  I  work." 

After  we  left  Mr.  Pitt's  place,  we  went  on 
toward  Tarboro;  we  stopped  at  some  cross- 
roads, where  there  was  a  store.  Mr.  Lee  said, 
"Jess,  go  in  and  see  if  you  can  sell  the  man  a 
rod.''  I  went  in  and  found  an  old  friend,  Jim 
Frye,  clerking  for  Mr.  Farmer,  the  owner  of 
the  store.  Mr.  Farmer  was  not  there;  he  had 
gone  to  Rocky  Mount  and  would  not  be  back 
until  evening.  So  w^e  fed  our  horses  and  made 
up  the  best  dinner  we  could  out  of  what  we 
could  buy  in  the  store,  which  was  crackers, 
sardines,  cheese,  pickles,  brandy  peaches,  eggs, 
bacon  or  ham  and  sugar  and  coffee,  for  desert 
we  had  ginger  snaps,  brandy  peaches  and  cof- 
fee. We  carried  a  frying  pan  along,  also  a 
coffee  pot,  so  we  got  along  very  well  and  had 
really  more  than  we  could  eat.  We  drove  on 
toward  Tarboro  and  stopped  for  the  night  with 
a  Mr.  Knight.  He  was  kin  to  the  Lawrence 
family  of  Edgecombe  County.  He  was  very 
kind  to  us,  and  having  a  fine  home  and  plenty 
of  room,  he  made  us  very  comfortable. 

The  next  morning,  we  had  breakfast  early 
as  Mr.  Knight  said  that  he  had  to  go  to  Tar- 


112       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

boro.  Mr.  Lee  was  anxious  to  sell  him  some 
lightning  rods,  so  when  Mr.  Knight  quitted 
the  breakfast  table,  excused  himself  and  walk- 
ed down  toward  the  barn,  Mr.  Lee  said,  '^Jesse, 
go  and  try  to  sell  to  him  some  rods.''  My  judg- 
ment was  against  making  the  trial,  as  I  could 
see  that  Mr.  Knight  was  in  a  hurry  to  leave, 
but  I  went  on  to  where  Mr.  Knight  was  wait- 
ing for  his  horse,  I  walked  up  to  him  and 
said,  "Why,  Mr.  Knight,  you  have  no  lightning 
rods  on  your  house  and  this  is  a  mighty  good 
chance  to  get  them."  He  said  he  had  been 
thinking  about  it.  How  much  were  they 
worth?  What  would  it  cost  for  his  residence, 
the  barn  and  the  gin  house?  I  had  to  call  Mr. 
Lee,  who  gave  him  an  estimate.  Then  ]Mr. 
Knight  asked  how  long  it  would  take  to  fin- 
ish the  work.  Mr.  Lee  told  him  that  we  would 
finish  by  night. 

So  Mr.  Knight  said,  "All  right,  go  ahead 
and  do  the  work;  I  will  be  back  before  you  fin- 
ish," and  he  jumped  in  his  buggy  and  was  gone 
before  Mr.  Lee  could  say  another  word;  then 
he  turned  to  me  and  asked  what  I  had  said  to 
Mr.  Knight  to  sell  the  rods  so  easily?  I  an- 
swered that  I  only  said  that  "if  he  wanted  the 
rods,  now  was  a  good  chance." 

Mr.  Lee  said,  "If  you  can  sell  lightning  rods 
by  saying  such  words,  you  will  be  the  great- 
est salesman  in  the  business.     He  said  here 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  113 

were  two  big  jobs  that  you  have  sold  without 
any  help  from  me.  You  did  not  spend  fifteen 
minutes  talking  to  either  Mr.  Pitt  or  Mr. 
Knight  and  both  are  intelligent  men,  and  you 
sold  to  both  of  them." 

He  said  further,  "You  will  make  a  'cracker- 
jack'  salesman,  but  you  are  not  able  to  do  the 
work;  from  here  we  will  go  to  Kocky  Mount 
to  get  more  rod.  I  will  run  down  to  Wilson 
and  will  send  the  rod  by  the  first  train  and  a 
good  workman  to  do  the  work  till  you  get 
stronger." 

He  explained  to  me  how  to  figure  up  the  cost 
of  a  rod  on  the  different  type  of  houses,  and 
gave  me  advice  about  behaving  myself,  tell- 
ing me  not  to  fall  in  love  with  all  the  pretty 
girls  that  I  met.  He  said  he  was  sure  that  T 
would  do  well,  and  he  would  give  me  a  good 
chance.  So  we  finished  Mr.  Knight's  work  and 
got  the  money. 

Mr.  Knight  begged  us  to  remain  for  an- 
other night,  but  Mr.  Lee,  with  over  four  hun- 
dred dollars  in  cash  in  his  pocket,  the  fruits 
of  two  days'  labor,  and  a  young  and  beautiful 
wife  left  in  Wilson,  he  had  only  been  married 
one  month,  could  not  be  persuaded  to  wait  an- 
other minute,  so  we  hitched  up  the  Horses  and 
in  one  hour  we  were  in  Kocky  Mount,  just  nine 


114      TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

miles  from  Mr.  Knight's.  He  caught  the  train 
and  by  8  o'clock  he  was  with  his  wife  in  Wil- 
son. 

I  waited  two  days  at  Rocky  Mount  for  the 
rods  and  the  man  who  was  to  help  me,  but  the 
time  was  not  lost,  for  I  had  many  kinfolks 
around  Rocky  Mount,  as  w^ell  as  many  dear 
friends  and  an  old  school  mate,  namely,  Spen- 
cer Fountain,  w^as  the  telegraph  operator  and 
railroad  agent,  was  married  and  living  with  his 
family  at  Rocky  Mount.  I  knew  his  father, 
mother,  sisters  and  brothers;  they  all  lived 
there. 

I  visited  my  kin  in  the  day  time,  but  when 
the  evening  came  I  was  to  be  found  at  Mr. 
Fountain's,  where  the  two  beautiful  sisters  of 
Spencer  were  to  be  found,  the  evenings  were 
spent  in  music  and  song,  and  all  the  funny 
stories  that  we  were  able  to  tell. 

I  must  tell  a  story  on  Spencer.  It  was  sev- 
eral years  before  this  time,  when  he  was  doing 
his  courting.  It  was  at  the  time  when  I  was 
visiting  the  trains  at  night  in  Wilson  for  Mrs. 
Blount,  who  kept  the  hotel  belonging  to  my 
mother.  Spencer  Fountain  was  at  that  time 
the  telegraph  operator  at  Wilson.  His  sweet- 
heart lived  up  the  road  toward  Weldon,  either 
Halifax,  Enfield  or  maybe  it  was  off  the  rail- 
road at  Scotland  Neck,  but  Spencer,  at  the 
time  I  mention,  was  very  anxious  to  take  the 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  115 

train  passing  Wilson  at  2:30  a.  m.  One  Sat- 
urday night,  so  as  to  reach  his  sweetheart  on 
Sunday  morning,  spend  the  day  with  her  and 
get  back  to  his  business  Sunday  night.  He 
said  to  me,  "Jess,  I  want  to  go  on  that  2:30 
a.  m.  train.  Now  don't  you  let  me  get  left  for 
I  would  not  get  left  for  $100.00."  I  told  him 
not  to  be  uneasy,  that  I  would  wake  him  up  in 
time  to  catch  his  train. 

I  have  always  throughout  my  life  been  able 
to  w^ake  up  at  any  hour  that  I  would  make  up 
my  mind  to  do.  At  that  time  I  did  not  know 
how  reliable  my  sub-conscious  mind  w^as,  so  1 
had  an  alarm  clock  to  make  sure.  I  would  set 
the  alarm  clock  to  ring  at  2:10  a.  m.,  and  I 
would  wake  up  at  2:05  or  near  it  and  reach 
over  and  turn  off  the  alarm  so  that  I  would  not 
be  compelled  to  hear  it  ring.  This  happened 
every  night,  with  little  variation,  for  two  years. 
I  do  not  remember  but  two  times  when  I  failed 
to  wake  up  before  the  alarm  clock  struck,  and 
on  both  of  these  occasions  I  was  sick  and  had 
high  fever,  and  I  know  now  that  I  was  partly 
delirious  and  hardly  responsible  for  what  I 
did. 

On  this  occasion,  when  Spencer  wanted  to 
go  to  see  his  sweetheart,  I  put  an  extra  charge 
upon  myself,  but  had  my  alarm  clock  set  also 
to  help  guard  against  mistakes.  When  the 
hour  of  2:00  a.  m.  arrived,  I  was  wide  awake 


116       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

and  went  over  to  the  bed  in  the  same  room 
where  Spencer  was  asleep.  I  told  him  that  it 
was  time  to  get  up  if  he  wanted  to  go  on  the 
2:30  train.  Spencer  raised  himself  up  and 
sat  in  bed,  with  his  eyes  wide  open,  and  I 
thought  he  was  awake,  as  he  looked  at  me  and 
talked  with  as  much  reason  as  he  would  at  any 
time.  He  said,  ^^Jess,  I  have  changed  my  mind; 
I  do  not  think  that  I  will  go.''  I  took  this 
as  a  settlement  of  the  matter  and  would  not 
have  done  anything  more  to  disturb  his  slum- 
bers. My  brother,  CuUen,  was  sleeping  with 
me,  but  was  awake.  He  said,  "You  have  not 
waked  up  Spencer  yet."  I  asked  him  if  he  had 
heard  what  Spencer  said?  He  said,  "Yes,  but 
he  is  fast  asleep."  I  said  I  did  not  think  so 
as  Spencer  sat  up  in  bed  with  his  eyes  open, 
and  talked  with  good  sense  and  said  "that  he 
had  changed  his  mind  and  did  not  want  to 
go.' 


Cullen  said,  "I  will  wake  him  up,"  and  jump- 
ed on  Spencer's   bed,    grabbed   him    by    the 
shoulder  and  gave  him  a  good  shaking,  and 
said,  "Spencer!  Spencer!  the  train  is  coming!" 

And  you  ought  to  have  seen  Spencer  get 
up  and  get  a  move  on  himself.  He  got  dressed 
and  caught  the  train  and  married  the  girl.  I 
have  often  wondered  what  would  have  hap- 
pened if  he  had  missed  that  train  that  night. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  117 

His  wife  never  knew  what  a  part  that  I  and 
my  brother,  Gullen,  played  that  night  in  their 
destiny. 

My  poor  brother  has  been  dead  nearly  two 
years,  and  Spencer  is  a  grandfather  and  so  am 
I,  but  here  these  old  scenes  and  words  and 
acts  came  before  my  mind  as  the  scenes  of 
to-day. 

At  last,  after  a  wait  of  two  days,  the  light- 
ning rods  and  the  man  who  was  to  help  me 
arrived,  and  I  reluctantly  got  on  my  wagon 
again,  leaving  my  dearly  beloved  friends  of 
the  long  ago  to  achieve  my  fortune. 

I  went  first  to  the  Falls,  where  there  was  a 
cotton  factory,  belonging  at  that  time  to  Wil- 
liam S.  Battle,  a  kinsman,  his  son,  James  Bat- 
tle, was  in  charge  of  the  factory.  I  went  into 
his  office  and  told  him  that  my  name  was  Jesse 
Battle,  that  I  was  putting  up  lightning  rods, 
and  if  he  wanted  some  put  on  his  factory  that 
now  was  a  good  chance.  He  said  that  he 
thought  there  should  be  some  lightning  rods 
on  the  factory,  and  if  our  prices  were  reason- 
able he  would  have  it  done.  I  gave  him  the 
best  estimate  that  I  could,  and  he  told  me 
to  go  ahead. 

I  started  in  with  many  misgivings,  for  my 
helper,  the  man  Mr.  Lee  sent  me  to  do  the 
work,  was  a  green  Irishman,  who  had  only 
been  in  this   country  for  three   months,   and 


118       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

talked  with  such  a  brogue  that  I  was  com- 
pelled to  ask  him  to  repeat  what  he  said  so 
that  I  could  understand  what  he  said.  He  got 
it  into  his  head  that  I  did  this  to  make  fun 
of  him  and  he  was  very  angry.  He  swelled 
up  so  that  he  would  hardly  answer  me  at  all. 
I  asked  him  to  get  the  ladders  and  bring 
them  to  the  buildings:  he  said  that  if  I  wanted 
the  '^lathers"  I  could  get  them  myself.  I  asked 
him  what  kind  of  work  did  he  expect  to  do. 
He  said,  "Attend  the  horses  and  drive  them." 
I  asked  him  if  he  had  ever  put  up  any  light- 
ning rods.  He  said,  "No,  what  did  any  per- 
son want  with  such  things,  that  if  God  wanted 
to  strike  a  house  with  lightning  that  He  would 
do  it."  I  asked  him  if  he  was  a  Presbyterian, 
and  he  said,  "Yes,  I  am." 

I  asked  him  what  did  he  wear  clothes  for, 
that  according  to  his  doctrine,  if  God  wanted 
to  make  him  cold  that  he  would  make  him  cold, 
clothes  or  no  clothes.  He  said,  "I  wear  clothes 
to  cover  my  nakedness." 

I  saw  that  I  was  wasting  my  breath  talk 
ing  to  such  a  man.  I  hired  a  negro  to  help 
me  that  afternoon,  named  Howell  Shines.  Aft- 
er much  trouble  and  awful  hard  work,  I  got 
these  rods  put  up — I  had  to  do  all  the  work 
myself,  for  my  helper  would  not  do  it.  When  I 
had  finished  this  job,  I  took  my  wild  Irishman 
and  my  new  found  friend,  Howell  Shines,  back 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  119 

to  Rocky  Mount  and  told  my  Irishman  that  he 
could  go  back  to  Wilson,  for  I  did  not  want 
him.  He  said  that  he  would  not  do  it,  for  I 
had  not  hired  him  and  that  I  could  not  dis- 
charge him.  I  wired  Mr.  Lee  that  if  he  did 
not  relieve  me  of  this  Irishman  that  he  could 
accept  my  resignation,  that  I  did  not  want 
such  a  man  and  would  not  have  him,  that  I 
had  found  a  good  negro  and  would  take  my 
chances  with  him  in  preference  to  the  Irish- 
man. The  next  morning  the  Irishman  got  or- 
ders to  report  in  Wilson,  which  he  did.  I  have 
never  seen  him  since.  I  have  even  forgotten 
his  name. 

HoAvell  Shines  was  a  very  bright  darky,  I 
mean  mentally,  not  in  color,  he  was  as  black 
as  ink,  a  pure,  genuine  "nigger.''  I  called  him 
"governor,"  and  this  "tickled  him  to  death.*' 
He  was  a  devoted  servant  and  a  good  reliable 
man  and  not  afraid  of  work.  He  stayed  with 
me  for  two  years  and  had  it  not  been  for  his 
exalted  ideas  of  property,  real  estate,  he  might 
be  with  me  yet. 

He  was  a  good,  faithful  soul,  but  he  heard 
of  a  colored  girl  around  Charlotte  who  owned 
an  acre  of  ground,  and  he  told  me  that  he  "was 
going  to  marry  that  gal  to  get  that  acre  of 
land." 

He  did  marry  the  girl,  but  I  do  not  know 
whether  he  got  the  acre  of  land. 


120       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 


MY  FIRST  ACCIDENT. 

While  in  Edgecombe  County,  N.  C,  in  April, 
1871,  I  was  below  Tarboro,  near  Old  Sparta,  at 
a  place  called  Center  Bluff  on  the  Tar  River. 
There  was  a  ferry  there.  It  was  an  old  flat 
bottom  scow  or  lighter.  It  had  a  fence  on 
either  side  and  a  chain  that  could  be  put  up 
at  each  end. 

The  ferryman  had  a  rope  fastened  on  each 
shore,  running  across  the  river,  this  rope  pass- 
ing through  two  pulleys  at  the  ends  of  the  flat 
boat.  He  used  this  rope  as  a  propeller.  In 
addition  to  this  propeller,  he  used  a  long  pole 
to  help  him  get  from  one  shore  to  the  other. 
He  would  remain  on  the  last  shore  where  he 
had  landed  until  some  one  would  call  him  to 
the  other  shore.  He  would  go  across,  jam- 
ming his  boat  as  far  as  possible  up  the  bank 
of  the  river. 

I  wanted  to  cross  the  river.  The  ferryman 
was  on  the  opposite  shore,  so  I  called  him  and 
he  responded  promptly.  When  he  arrived,  I 
noted  that  there  was  nothing  to  fasten  the 
boat  to  and  called  his  attention  to  this  defect, 
answering  me,  he  said,  "I  have    had    heavier 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  121 

wagons  than  yours,  so  come  along."  This  meant 
for  me  to  drive  on  the  ferryboat. 

The  ferryman  went  to  the  other  end  of  the 
boat  and  put  his  long  pole  down  into  the  water 
and  stood  pulling  on  the  pole  to  help  keep  the 
boat  against  the  shore  when  the  front  wheels 
of  the  wagon  struck  it.  The  very  thing  hap- 
pened that  I  feared.  When  the  wheels  struck 
the  end  of  the  boat  the  w^eight  of  the  wagon 
pushed  the  boat  away  from  the  shore  out  into 
the  river.  My  horses  were  on  the  boat,  but 
the  heavy  wagon  was  not.  After  the  boat  once 
got  started,  the  inclined  plane  of  the  shore 
and  the  w^eight  of  the  wagon  kept  us  all  mov- 
ing toward  the  middle  of  the  river.  I  saw  at 
once  a  calamity  coming.  None  of  us  knew  at 
first  what  to  do;  as  the  boat  passed  further 
from  shore,  the  pole  of  the  wagon  went  lower 
and  lower  toward  the  water  and  at  last  it 
rested  on  the  end  of  the  boat.  Would  the 
boat  stop  moving  now?  No,  it  kept  on;  as 
the  weight  of  the  horses  held  the  wagon  polo 
down  at  the  front  end^  and  the  weight  of  the 
wagon  at  the  wagon  end,  it  was  simply  a  ques- 
tion of  buoyancy  of  the  boat  as  to  how  long  it 
would  continue  to  float. 

It  did  not  float  long  for  the  end  near  us  went 
right  under  the  water,  and  as  it  did  so,  it 
pulled  the  horses  backward  till  their  hind  feet 
were  off  the  boat.     I  knew    that     something 


122       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

would  have  to  be  done  quickly.  I  was  in  my 
shirt  sleeves,  for  the  weather  was  warm.  I  got 
out  my  knife,  opened  it  and  jumped  down  be- 
tween the  horses  on  the  wagon  pole,  the  traces 
were  slack  and  it  was  a  small  job  to  unhook 
them.  I  told  the  man  to  give  the  horses  a 
slack  rein  and  then  I  walked  on  the  wagon  pole 
up  to  the  horses'  heads  and  with  my  knife 
cut  the  breast  straps  and  the  reins,  which  held 
them  together.  It  was  a  job  to  cut  the  breast 
straps,  but  I  knew  that  heavy  leather  had 
to  be  cut  on  a  slant  and  not  at  right  angles  to 
the  leather,  so,  with  one  or  two  motions  across 
it  with  my  sharp  knife,  the  deed  was  done.  T 
said  to  the  man  to  turn  the  horses  loose,  which 
he  did.  I  pushed  one  horse  to  the  right  and 
the  other  to  the  left  and  hollered  "go,''  and 
they  obeyed  promptly.  This  is  the  first  time 
that  either  of  them  had  moved  their  front  feet; 
had  either  of  them  done  so  they  would  have 
been  drowned.  They  swam  to  shore,  the  mud 
in  the  river  stopped  the  progress  of  the  wagon. 
We  all  escaped  with  small  damages  done.  The 
people  at  the  store  pulled  my  wagon  out  with 
a  rope.  The  storekeeper  helped  me  mend  my 
harness.  In  an  hour  I  was  on  my  way  toward 
Mr.  Elias  Carr's  home,  where  I  was  kindly  re- 
ceived. 

I  had  forgotten  all  about  my  watch  and  my 
money.     When  I  looked  at  my  watch,  it  had 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  123 

stopped  at  3:22  p.  m.  I  took  it  to  pieces,  dried 
it  out,  cleaned  it,  oiled  it,  put  it  together  again 
and  it  ran  as  well  as  ever.  Had  I  left  it  a  day, 
the  rust  would  have  ruined  it. 

I  had  in  my  pocket  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars,  it  was  wet  and  stuck  together, 
making  a  somewhat  delicate  task,  but  I  suc- 
ceeded in  unraveling  or  unfolding  the  vari- 
ous bills  and  put  them  in  between  the  pages 
of  a  book,  w^hich  gave  them  back  to  me  in 
good  shape,  with  the  exception  of  some  lost 
color. 

Howell  and  I  worked  around  Rocky  Mount 
and  Tarboro  for  about  six  weeks,  bringing  the 
season  to  about  May  1st.  We  sold  many 
lightning  rods  and  took  in  much  money  and 
many  notes.  I  sent  nearly  all  the  money  and 
all  of  the  notes  to  Mr.  Lee.  I  was  still  sick, 
having  chills  and  fevers  every  few  days.  Dr. 
Ricks,  who  married  my  cousin,  Helen  Battle, 
and  lived  at  Rocky  Mount,  prescribed  for  me, 
without  cost,  but  he  said,  go  up  into  the  west- 
ern part  of  the  state  and  you  will  get  Avell.  I 
made  up  my  mind  that  if  Mr.  Lee  would  permit 
it,  I  would  go  further  up  the  country.  I  had 
not  been  home  to  Wilson,  nor  had  I  seen  Mr. 
Lee  since  he  left  me  with  the  four  hundred 
dollars  cash  in  his  pocket.  I  do  not  believe 
that  he  had  been  on  a  lightning  rod  wagon 
after  he  left  me.    There  was  no  occasion  to  do 


124       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

SO,  for  I  had  sent  him  enough  money  to  pay 
for  all  the  lightning  rods  that  he  bought,  and 
to  pay  all  his  other  expenses.  To  be  with  his 
beautiful  wife  was  pleasure  enough  for  him. 
I  got  letters  from  him  at  Raleigh,  Hillsbor- 
ough, Greensboro  and  Danville,  every  letter 
would  tell  me  where  to  send  the  next  instal- 
ment of  cash. 

I  wrote  to  him  and  told  him  that  my  physi- 
cian had  advised  me  to  go  further  up  the  coun- 
try and  I  wanted  to  go,  as  I  was  too  sick  to 
remain  in  the  low  flat  part  of  the  state. 

He  wrote  me  and  said  that  all  the  upper  part 
of  the  state  had  already  been  canvassed,  and 
that  I  would  not  be  able  to  make  a  living  in 
that  section  of  the  state.  He  said  that  I  was 
doing  so  well  where  I  was  that  I  had  better  re- 
main in  the  eastern  part  of  the  state.  When  I 
got  this  letter  it  irritated  me  so  much  that  I 
was  almost  tempted  to  resign,  but  I  thought 
of  my  poverty  back  in  Wilson  and  saw  no  open- 
ing outside  of  the  business  that  I  was  in.  T 
was  handling  much  money  and  I  felt  prosper- 
ous. It  gave  me  more  confidence  in  myself.  If 
I  had  only  been  well,  so  that  I  could  do  my 
work  easier,  without  so  much  exhaustion  and 
pain,  I  would  have  been  better  satisfied.  With- 
out saying  any  more  about  it,  to  Mr.  Lee,  I 
started  on  May  1st  to  "Raleigh.  I  arrived  in 
Raleigh  on  May  3rd.     That  night    I    put     my 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  125 

horses  in  Mr.  Wynne's  stable,  and  I  put  up  at 
the  Yarboro  House,  at  $2.50  per  day.  After  I 
got  my  supper  I  went  around  to  see  Dr.  Wm. 
H.  MoKee,  who  married  my  aunt  Susan,  a  sis- 
ter of  my  father.  He  received  me  kindly,  and 
during  the  evening  I  told  him  about  my  success 
and  about  my  sickness;  he  was  pleased  with 
my  success  and  said.  We  will  cure  you.  You 
did  right  to  leave  the  low  country,  he  said.  He 
prescribed  for  me;  he  gave  me  the  medicine.  I 
told  him  how  long  I  had  been  reading,  how  I 
longed  to  be  a  doctor.  He  said  the  reading 
was  all  good  enough,  but  to  give  up  the  idea 
of  being  a  doctor;  for  said  he,  ''it  is  a  dog's 
life,"  mighty  hard  work  and  mighty  poor  pay. 
I  spoke  about  the  good  that  one  could  do.  He 
said  that  part  was  all  right,  too,  but  a  man 
must  live  and  take  care  of  his  family.  Now, 
he  said,  "Don't  you  do  like  your  father  and 
give  away  all  that  you  make." 

I  asked  him  w^hat  was  the  medicine  that  he 
was  giving  to  me.  He  said  each  pill  has  three 
grains  of  blue  mass,  two  grains  of  quinine  and 
one  drop  of  oil  of  black  pepper;  he  said  take 
one  every  three  hours  for  the  first  day  and  take 
castor  oil  the  next  day;  then  skip  a  day,  and 
then  repeat;  then  skip  two  days  and  repeat; 
then  skip  one  week  and  repeat,  and  he  said, 
when  you  have  done  this  I  do  not  think  that 
you  will  have  any  more  chills  and  ague;  this 


126       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

was  in  May,  1871,  and  now  it  is  1911  (January), 
and  I  have  never  had  another  chill  since. 

I  wrote  Mr.  Lee  about  one  week  after  I  ar- 
rived in  Raleigh.  He  was  then  at  Danville, 
Va.  I  sent  him  about  five  hundred  dollars  in 
cash,  and  near  four  hundred  dollars  in  notes 
for  my  first  week's  work  in  Raleigh.  He  wrote 
me  that  he  was  sorry  that  I  had  left  the  east; 
but  if  I  could  do  that  well  in  Raleigh  or  any- 
where else  that  I  was  welcome  to  go  anywhere 
that  I  wanted  to  go.  I  put  in  three  months' 
work  in  and  around  Raleigh  and  did  about 
$7,000.00  in  cash  and  notes. 

I  had  enjoyed  very  much  meeting  all  of  my 
Battle  kin  in  Raleigh,  and  Dr.  McKee,  who  put 
me  on  my  feet,  with  his  chill  medicine,  was  one 
of  the  finest  men  that  I  ever  met. 

My  uncle,  William  Horn  Battle,  at  that  time 
was  one  of  the  Supreme  Court  Judges,  and  Un- 
cle Richard  Battle  were  both  alive  at  that  time. 
I  saw  them  almost  every  day,  and  it  was  a  great 
treat  to  be  with  them  and  hear  them  talk. 
Both  had  a  strong  family  likeness  to  my  fa- 
ther, which  made  them  doubly  dear  to  me,  for 
my  poor,  sainted  father  had  only  been  dead 
about  one  year. 

I  had  here  also  two  cousins,  Dr.  Kemp 
Plummer  Battle,  with  his  family;  they  had  a 
lovely  home  on  Fayetteville  street.     I   visited 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  127 

them  often.  His  oldest  daughter  Nellie  at  this 
time  was  about  fifteen  years  old;  a  beautiful 
girl  with  brown  eyes  and  the  prettiest  kind  of 
complexion,  as  fair  and  soft  as  a  baby's  skin. 
I  did  fall  in  love  with  her,  but  being  kin  and 
my  poverty  sealed  my  lips,. so  she  only  knew 
that  I  admired  her.  There  were  four  boys,  too, 
all  bright,  handsome,  clean-looking  boys.  I  be- 
lieve all  of  them  have  given  a  good  account  of 
themselves  and  have  succeeded  in  life.  My 
poor  dear  Cousin  Nellie  passed  away  years  and 
years  ago  and  left  a  blank  in  her  parents' 
hearts  that  nothing  has  been  able  to  fill.  An- 
other cousin,  Kichard  H.  Battle,  that  we  call 
lawyer  Dick  to  distinguish  him  from  Uncle 
Dossey's  son  Richard.  This  cousin,  Richard 
H.  Battle,  married  Gov.  Ashe's  daughter.  He 
had  several  children,  but  all  were  quite  young 
at  this  time,  and  I  did  not  get  very  well  ac- 
quainted with  them. 


128       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 


MEETING  MY  FUTURE  WIPE. 

When  August  came  I  finished  my  work  about 
Raleigh  and  started  on  Saturday  toward  Fay- 
etteville;  I  got  out  about  fifteen  miles;  we 
came  to  a  fork  in  the  road;  my  faithful  old 
negro  said,  ''Which  road,  Mass  Jesse?"  I  said 
it  makes  little  difference  to  me  which  road  you 
take.  I  want  to  find  a  good  place  to  spend  Sun- 
day. We  will  have  good  luck  any  way.  He 
left  his  reins  slack  and  the  horses  were  at  lib 
erty  to  take  either  road.  They  took  the  left 
hand  road;  I  noticed  that  this  road  was  bear- 
ing toward  the  railroad,  and  I  knew  from  my 
map  that  we  were  going  toward  a  little  town 
called  Clayton.  I  stopped  at  a  farmer's  house 
and  asked  if  the  road  that  we  were  on  did  go 
to  Clayton;  the  farmer  said  yes,  it  did.  I  asked 
how  far  it  was?  He  said  about  four  miles.  I 
wanted  to  know  if  there  was  a  hotel  or  board- 
ing house  that  I  could  stop  at.  He  said  there 
was  a  Mr.  White  who  took  boarders,  but  he 
thought  I  would  have  trouble  getting  feed  for 
my  horses,  so  he  was  kind  enough  to  sell  me 
some.  I  thanked  him  and  in  less  than  an  hour 
we  were  in  Clayton.     That  night  after  supper 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  129 

someone  told  about  the  great  religious  revival 
that  had  been  going  on  in  the  town  for  nearly 
a  month,  and  it  was  reported  that  there  were 
about  thirty  candidates  for  baptism  on  the 
next  day.  1  asked  who  was  the  great  preacher 
who  had  achieved  such  success  among  them.  I 
was  told  that  it  was  Dr.  William  B.  Harrell.  I 
said  that  is  funny.  He  is  my  brother-in-law. 
This  attracted  much  attention  to  myself,  and 
some  of  them  seeing  me  as  a  beardless  boy 
doubted  what  I  had  said.  So  I  said  further 
that  they  were  living  in  Selma  in  May,  and  I 
had  stopped  with  them  on  my  way  to  Raleigh. 
Somone  said  "They  live  here  now."  Moved 
here  in  July.  I  asked  where  they  lived,  and  a 
boy  volunteered  to  show  me.  So  off  we  went. 
The  boy  took  me  right  to  their  house,  and  to 
make  sure  that  I  had  told  the  truth  about  the 
Doctor's  being  my  brother-in-law,  he  went  in 
with  me  and  staid  till  bedtime.  We  had  a 
memorable  evening,  full  of  music  and  songs 
and  gayety.  During  the  evening  my  niece,  Ida, 
now  Mrs.  Hardy  Home,  of  Clayton,  said,  "Un- 
cle Jesse,  there  is  the  prettiest  girl  in  this  town 
that  you  ever  saw."  I  said,  "Come  on,  let  us 
go  to  see  her."  She  said,  "You  can't  see  her 
to-night;  it  is  too  late.  We  will  see  her  to- 
morrow." I  asked  her  name.  Ida  said,  It  is 
Bettie  Lee.  We  talked  about  Bettie  Lee  much 
of  the  evening.     I  told  my  nieces  that  I  had 


130      TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

two  horses  and  a  wagon  and  could  fix  it  up  so 
we  could  all  go  to  the  baptizing  on  the  morrow, 
but  they  had  already  made  arrangements  to  go 
with  Mr.  Vic  Tomlinson,  who  had  a  cart  and 
a  horse.  There  were  at  this  time  few  buggies 
and  no  carriages  in  the  country,  except  in  large 
towns  and  cities.  The  next  morning  I  had  the 
ladders  and  the  lightning  rods  taken  out  of  the 
wagon  and  nailed  some  boxes  on  for  seats  and 
picked  up  several  young  men  to  go  with  me  to 
the  baptizing.  On  the  way  we  overtook  the 
cart  with  Vic  Tomlinson,  my  nieces,  Ida  and 
Rosa,  and  Miss  Bettie  Lee.  I  had  to  keep  back 
to  prevent  my  horses  from  throwing  dirt  in  the 
cart.  So  I  could  not  get  a  good  look  at  Miss 
Bettie.  When  we  got  to  Mr.  Stallings'  house. 
It  was  at  his  mill  pond  that  the  baptizing  was 
to  be. 

All  stopped  at  the  well,  for  the  weather  was 
hot,  and  the  people  were  thirsty.  As  I  came 
up,  my  niece,  Ida,  introduced  me  to  Miss  Bet- 
tie Lee.  I  drew  up  the  water  and  with  an  old 
broken  goblet  gave  water  first  to  Miss  Bettie, 
then  to  the  others.  We  then  went  on  down  to 
the  mill  pond,  where  there  were  congregated 
at  least  five  hundred  people.  It  was  a  grand 
spectacle,  for  the  country,  to  see  these  earnest 
faces,  to  hear  their  songs,  to  watch  the  effects 
produced  on  all  who  wore  standing  there. 
Every  time  Doctor  Harrell  went  down  in  the 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  131 

water  with  one  on  either  side  and  when  he  got 
a  proper  depth,  almost  to  the  armpits,  he 
would  stop,  and  with  a  solemn  smile  on  his  face 
would  lift  up  his  hand  and  say,  ^'I  baptize  you, 
my  brother  (or  sister,  as  the  case  might  be), 
in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Amen,"  and  with  his  left 
hand  supporting  the  candidate's  head,  and  the 
right  hand  holding  the  candidate's  both  hands, 
he  would  push  them  over  backwards  till  they 
passed  entirely  under  the  water.  Then  he 
would  raise  them  up  and  shout,  "Another  soul 
saved,  thank  God."  This  process  went  on  till 
all  were  baptized. 

The  scene  and  what  we  heard  was  too  se- 
rious and  solemn  for  any  compliments  or  fool- 
ishness, so  little  was  said  v/hile  we  were  at  the 
mill  pond.  I  asked  Miss  Bettie  if  I  might  come 
to  see  her;  and  where  she  lived.  She  told  me 
she  was  not  stopping  at  home,  but  was  staying 
with  her  sister  at  Mr.  Ashley  Home's  store. 
She  said  Mr.  Ashley  Home  was  her  sister's 
husband,  and  that  he  had  gone  on  to  New  York 
to  buy  goods;  and  that  she  was  sleeping  at  the 
store  with  her  sister.  I  wanted  to  go  to  church 
with  her  that  night,  but  she  had  another  en- 
gagement. I  said  if  she  would  let  me  I  would 
see  her  a  few  minutes  before  she  went  to 
church.  She  said  if  they  were  not  at  supper 
that  she  would  be  pleased  to  see  me. 


132       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

I  had  watched  her  all  the  morning,  trying  to 
find  some  fault  with  her,  but,  to  me,  she  was 
absolutely  faultless.  She  was  so  modest,  with 
no  self-consciousness;  so  beautiful,  but  did  not 
seem  to  know  it.  She  was  my  dream.  I  had 
seen  her  form  before  in  my  ideal;  but  not  em- 
bodied. There  was  something  in  her  elastic 
step,  like  the  movements  of  a  spirit.  It  was 
no  trouble  for  her  to  get  around.  She  could 
run  like  a  deer.  She  was  tall  and  slim  and 
most  too  thin  in  flesh;  but  this  made  her  more 
attractive.  She  was  a  brunette  in  the  color  of 
her  hair  and  eyes;  but  no  blonde  ever  had  a 
fairer  or  smoother  skin;  it  was  almost  trans- 
parent. Her  eyes  were  large  and  brown.  There 
was  a  peace  and  serenity  in  her  every  look, 
with  an  indescribable  smile,  w^hich  showed  the 
innocence  of  the  divine  soul  within.  To  me 
she  was  almost  an  angel  and  yet  just  a  sweet, 
lovable  and  lovely  woman. 

I  was  infatuated,  enmeshed,  caught  and  de- 
livered. I  could  think  of  nothing  else.  I  was 
^'head  over  heels"  in  love.  I  forgot  w^here  I 
had  started,  forgot  what  I  was  doing.  I  was 
no  longer  a  "lightning  rod  man";  I  was  a  lover. 
I  had  seen  pretty  girls  before.  I  had  been  fas- 
cinated, entertained  and  enjoyed  being  in  their 
society,  but  I  would  tire  of  it  all,  go  along 
about  my  business  and  forget.  But  this  case 
was  different;  I  did  not  want  to  leave  her  at 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  133 

all.  I  wanted  nothing  but  just  the  privilege 
of  sitting  by  so  that  I  had  her  in  the  light,  so 
that  I  could  see  her  lovely  face  and  hear  her 
voice.  What  did  we  talk  about?  Goodness 
gracious,  don't  ask  me.  I  had  no  sense  left  to 
talk  with.  I  simply  sat  and  gazed  at  her.  I 
did  manage  to  tell  her  that  I  had  been  looking 
for  her  a  long  time,  and  I  was  so  glad  that  I 
had  found  her,  for  now  I  would  not  have  to 
look  any  longer;  and  I  said  further,  you  need 
not  look  any  further  either,  for  I  am  your  des- 
tiny, I  am  the  man.  She  said  little,  but  that 
quizzical  smile,  while  it  did  not  tell  me  what  I 
wanted  to  know,  it  was  not  repression  and  was 
not  banishment. 

I  lingered  around  Clayton  for  about  two 
weeks,  hoping  every  day  to  see  my  sweetheart 
alone;  but  the  boys  around  town  seemed  to  be 
banded  against  me;  for  if  I  went  calling  on  her 
in  the  evening  there  were  sometimes  as  many 
as  six  present,  never  less  than  two.  If  I  went 
calling  in  the  morning  there  sat  her  mother 
cold  and  stiff,  like  a  Cerberus,  guarding  this 
precious  treasure.  If  I  would  go  to  see  her  in 
the  afternoon,  there  would  be  two  or  three  of 
her  girl  friends,  and  none  of  them  had  any  con- 
sideration for  me,  for  they  never  left  us  alone. 

At  last  I  came  back  to  my  right  mind.  I 
knew  thai  something  else,  besides  soft,  pretty 
words  was  necessary  to  possess,  and  take  care 


134       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

of  this  angel.  I  began  asking  questions  of  my- 
self: Why  all  this  espionage?  I  wondered  if 
she  had  all  this  company  when  I  was  away? 
I  did  not  have  to  reflect  long  on  such  questions 
before  several  good  answers  presented  them- 
selves. In  the  first  place,  my  sweetheart  was 
just  sixteen  years  old,  and  going  to  school; 
secondly,  this  man  who  had  come  along  and 
fallen  in  love  with  this  schoolgirl  was  a  strang- 
er, and  what  little  information  that  was  avail- 
able reported  that  the  stranger  was  poor,  wild, 
and  a  gadabout,  never  contented  except  on  the 
wing,  traveling  somewhere,  anywhere,  to  be 
going  from  place  to  place. 

The  mother  of  my  sweetheart,  her  sister  and 
all  of  her  friends  were  determined  that  this 
Avandering  stranger  should  not  take  this  lovely 
flower  from  their  midst,  hence  all  of  the  com- 
pany, all  of  the  barriers  that  I  found  thrown 
across  the  way  of  my  advancement.  The  next 
question  1  asked  myself  was  this.  Do  I  have  to 
marry  all  of  my  wife's  kinfolks  and  all  of  her 
friends?  The  answer  was,  No,  I  do  not  have 
to  marry  them,  but  I  do  have  to  placate  them, 
if  I  wished  to  make  my  wife  happy.  I  could 
see  already  a  cloud  on  her  sweet  face  when  I 
came  in  her  presence.  I  knew  it  was  not  be- 
cause she  did  not  want  to  see  me,  for  she  was 
at  all  times  very  courteous  and  never  refused 
to  see  me,  no  matter  how  much  company  she 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OP  MY  LIFE.  135 

had  at  the  time.  I  told  her  that  I  must  go 
away  and  work — work  as  I  had  never  done  be- 
fore, so  that  I  might  come  back  with  something 
in  my  pocket  and  in  a  bank,  to  build  a  home 
for  her  if  she  cared  to  take  the  place  as  its 
owner  and  mistress.  She  said,  "This  was  best; 
that  it  would  give  her  time  to  finish  school,  and 
be  old  enough  to  know  her  own  mind." 

I  asked  her  if  I  might  write  to  her.  She 
said,  "I  will  ask  my  mother."  She  did  so,  and 
while  the  mother  did  not  approve  of  it,  she  did 

not  object. 

So  with  a  sad  heart  and  many  misgivings,  I 
told  all  good-by,  and  started  again  on  my  trip 
as  a  lightning  rod  man. 

For  several  days  I  would  pass  house  after 
house.  I  was  so  gloomy  I  had  no  heart  to  sell 
rods  or  to  do  the  work. 

I  would  brood  for  hours,  going  over  the 
same  circle  of  thought.  Why  was  I  so  poor? 
and  why  did  I  have  to  leave?  Each  question 
answered  the  other.  I  had  to  leave  her  be- 
cause I  was  so  poor;  and  I  was  so  poor  and 
miserable  because  I  had  to  leave  her.  She  had 
never  said  that  she  loved  me;  she  never  prom- 
ised to  marry  me. 

I  do  not  think  that  I  had  even  asked  her  to 
be  my  wife  as  yet.  I  was  too  much  in  love  to 
think  of  such  a  thing. 


136       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

Suppose  some  other  man  should  come  along 
and  win  her  while  I  was  away.  The  thought 
set  my  brain  on  fire.  I  would  want  to  kill  him 
if  he  took  her  away  from  me.  No,  this  would 
be  wrong,  for  no  man  could  take  her  without 
her  consent;  and  if  she  consented  to  marry  a 
man  it  w^ould  be  because  she  loved  him.  If 
I  loved  her  as  I  said  I  did,  I  should  love  every- 
body that  she  loved.  Could  I  do  it?  Well,  I 
might  love  her  mother,  sister,  brother,  but  the 
man  that  she  married!  No,  no,  I  could  not  say 
yes,  yet;  no,  not  yet.  I  would  have  to  grow 
more  like  my  father  to  do  that. 

Such  thoughts  as  these  would  pass  through 
my  brain  several  times  a  day,  always  ending 
up  with  the  first  propositions,  that  I  had  to 
leave  her,  because  I  was  so  poor. 

This  became  my  text  for  every  day's  solil- 
oquy, and  the  theme  for  my  nightly  dreams. 
At  last  it  penetrated  through  my  thick  skull 
that  the  remedy  was  success;  and  without 
some  kind  of  success  I  would  surely  lose  the 
darling  of  my  heart,  and  with  this  last  thought 
I  plunged  forward  determined  to  win  or  die  in 
the  attempt. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  137 


WANDERING. 

I  had  started  from  Raleigh  to  Fayetteville 
nearly  three  weeks  before.  What  had  I  done 
in  these  three  weeks?  Very  little;  to  make  an 
apearance  of  work  I  had  gone  out  in  the  coun- 
try all  around  Clayton,  but  most  of  the  country 
houses  were  old  and  unpainted,  and  the  own- 
ers would  not  spend  from  thirty  to  forty  dol- 
lars to  put  lightning  rods  on  them.  Once  in  a 
while  I  would  find  a  nice  painted  house,  and 
all  of  these  had  rods.  The  country  I  passed 
through  after  leaving  Clayton,  going  toward 
Fayetteville,  had  the  same  kind  of  houses,  old 
and  unpainted.  My  red  wagon  always  attract- 
ed attention,  but  nearly  everybody  that  I  met 
believed  that  I  was  a  Yankee,  until  I  told  my 
name  and  claimed  Raleigh  as  my  home. 

Nearly  all  that  I  met  knew  somebody  named 
Battle,  so  I  found  my  name  my  best  passport. 

Just  before  sunset  every  day  I  would  com- 
mence to  make  enquiries  for  a  place  to  stop  all 
night.  Sometimes  I  was  successful  at  the  first 
place  that  I  stopped.  Again  I  would  be  told 
that  they  did  not  take  in  strangers.  Then  I 
would  exert  myself  to  be  pleasant,  putting  on 


138       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

my  sweetest  smile,  promising  to  give  no  trou- 
ble and  offering  to  sleep  in  the  barn  if  he 
wished  it.  All  I  wanted  was  something  to  eat 
for  my  horses,  my  man  and  myself,  and  for  this 
1  was  willing  to  pay  in  cash,  as  I  had  money 
for  this  purpose. 

Sometimes  I  was  successful;  again,  they 
would  send  me  on  down  the  road.  I  would 
enquire  at  every  house;  at  last  I  would  find 
someone  to  take  pity  on  me  and  accommodate 
me  for  the  night.  I  do  not  remember  but  three 
times  in  the  four  years  that  I  was  a  lightning 
rod  man  that  I  failed  to  get  accommodations^, 
at  some  farm  house,  while  I  was  traveling 
through  the  country.  When  I  was  in  a  city 
I  always  stopped  at  a  hotel  and  put  my  horses 
in  the  livery  stables;  this  was  expensive  and 
not  to  be  indulged  in  except  when  I  was  doing 
good  work  in  the  city.  I  preferred  the  city,  as 
I  could  sell  as  well  or  better  than  I  could  in 
the  country.  The  city  people  had  more  money, 
and  I  did  not  have  to  travel  so  far  to  see  them. 
In  the  country  I  always  had  Avith  me  my  old 
banjo,  which  I  played  like  a  professional. 
After  supper,  if  there  were  young  people  or 
children  present,  they  would  surely  ask  me  to 
play.  I  would  take  the  banjo  out  of  its  case, 
tune  it  up  and  start  off  on  my  more  serious 
pieces  at  first,  such  as  "Home,  Sweet  Home," 
*^01d  Folks  at  Home,"  "Old  Kentucky  Home,'^ 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  139 

"Little  Old  Log  Cabin  in  the  Lane/'  "Nellie 
Gray/'  "Bonnie  Blue  Flag,"  "We  parted  by  the 
river  side/'  "Tenting  to-night  on  the  old  Camp 
Ground."  I  sang  these  songs  the  best  I  could. 
I  did  not  have  a  fine  voice  for  pathetic  songs; 
so  I  tried  to  make  up  in  expression  what  I 
lacked  in  tone. 

I  would  watch  my  audience,  to  see  how  I 
pleased  them.  If  I  saw  in  their  faces  that  they 
were  really  enjoying  my  playing  and  singing,  1 
would  warm  up  a  little  and  give  them  "Old 
Bob  Ridley,"  "I  Am  a  Good  Old  Rebel,"  "Seven 
Out,"  "Rhine  Wine  Charlie,"  "The  Prettiest 
Gal  That's  Out,"  "Villikens  and  His  Dinah," 
"A  Fine  Old  Dutch  Gentleman,"  "Devil  Take 
the  Gal  That  Wouldn't  Have  Me."  If  I  noticed 
my  audience  was  still  pleased,  I  would  give 
them  "The  Old  Virginia  Reel,"  "Mississippi 
Sawyer,"  "Old  Gray  Horse  Trotting  Around 
the  Wilderness,"  "Turkey  and  the  Corn,"  "Mas- 
sa  is  in  the  Cold  Ground,"  "Off  to  Charleston 
'fore  the  Break  o'  Day,"  "Fisher's  Hornpipe," 
"College  Hornpipe,"  "The  Old  Virginia  Nig- 
ger," and  would  wind  up  with  "The  Arkansas 
Traveler,"  my  masterpiece.  This  kind  of  a  pro- 
gram would  last  over  two  hours.  I  would  quit 
abruptly  and  say  that  I  was  tired  and  wanted 
to  go  to  bed.  This  left  everybody  in  a  good 
humor  and  not  tired  of  me. 

On  some  occasions  there  would  be  no  young 


140       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

people  around,  and  the  old  people  would  not 
ask  me  to  play.  At  such  places  I  did  not  play 
at  all. 

I  was  surprised  to  find  so  many  people  who 
really  thought  it  a  sin  to  play  on  any  kind  of 
a  musical  instrument.  Such  people,  of  course, 
would  think  me  a  wild,  thoughtless,  irreligious 
and  necessarily  vicious  and  unreliable  man. 
With  such  people  joy,  mirth,  pleasure  were 
also  sins,  no  matter  how  innocent  the  joy,  mirth 
or  pleasure  might  be.  Such  people  always  pre- 
dicted that  I  would  come  to  no  good  end.  They 
said  that  I  was  on  the  straight  road  to  hell. 
Such  predictions  would  have  had  a  baneful 
effect  on  any  other  kind  of  spirit  than  my  own. 
But  I  would  smile  my  sweetest  smile  and  tell 
them  that  as  the  road  to  hell  was  so  rough  and 
gloomy  and  had  so  many  tears  and  sorrow  in 
it  that  I  was  doing  all  that  I  could  to  brighten 
it  up  a  little,  and  that  they  were  in  the  wrong 
in  not  encouraging  me  in  doing  so. 

I  was  then  twenty-one  years  old  and  enjoy- 
ing good  health.  I  had  my  father's  disposi- 
tion; I  was  cheerful  and  looked  for  the  best  in 
all  persons  and  things.  My  gloomy  periods  did 
not  last  long. 

I  had  been  baptized  when  I  was  seventeen 
years  old  and  joined  the  Christian  Church;  but 
I  could  not  see  then,  and  have  never  been  able 
to  see  since,  that  a  long,  gloomy  face  improved 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  141 

a  man's  character,  and  I  did  not  believe  then, 
nor  do  I  believe  now,  that  such  a  face,  nor  the 
character  that  goes  with  it,  ever  kept  anyone 
out  of  hell,  if  there  is  such  a  place.  I  did  not 
believe  then,  neither  do  I  believe  now,  that 
there  is  such  a  place  in  existence.  Hell  to  me 
then,  and  hell  to  me  now,  is  the  invention  of 
diseased  minds,  and  it  is  not  in  harmony  with 
the  diA^ine  within  me;  hence  I  reject  it  in  all 
its  uses.  These  long  faces  and  the  characters 
that  go  with  them,  these  men  who  mumble 
prayers,  hate  music,  hate  their  brothers,  in  my 
opinion,  make  more  misery  here  and  are  better 
fitted  to  take  their  places  in  the  home  of  cor- 
rection than  the  cheerful  souls  who  make  life 
worth  living  and  love  their  fellow-men. 

I  have  taken  little  stock  in  the  sepulchral 
side  of  life;  but  have  done  all  I  can  to  brighten 
it  as  I  have  passed  along. 

After  spending  my  night  at  a  place  in  the 
country,  where  I  had  done  the  best  I  knew  how 
to  entertain  them,  I  would  ask  them  the  next 
morning,  Do  I  owe  you  something  for  your  kind 
entertainment  of  me  last  night?  In  nearly 
every  instance  the  answer  would  be,  "No,  sir, 
you  don't  owe  me  a  cent.     Come  again.'' 

If  it  was  at  one  of  those  places  where  they 
thought  it  a  sin  to  make  music,  and  I  had  not 
played  for  them,  I  would  ask  the  next  morning, 
How  much  do  I  owe  you?     And  the    answer 


142       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

w  ould  invariably  be,  Two  dollars  or  two  dollars 
and  a  half,  or  three  dollars.  This,  again,  shows 
the  difference  in  the  men.  It  also  shows  what 
a  difference  it  made  to  me.  So  it  did  not  take 
me  long  to  discover  that  the  men  w^ho  had  fam- 
ilies, children,  many  children,  were  the  most 
considerate  and  the  most  charitable.  Those 
w^ho  had  no  children,  no  responsibilities,  w^ere 
generally  less  inclined  to  put  themselves  out 
the  least  bit  to  accommodate  me  for  the  night 
than  those  whose  houses  were  already  full,  and 
who  were  not  really  in  condition  to  accommo- 
date me. 

I  have  stopped  many  times  where  I  slept 
with  one  of  the  larger  boys.  So  when  I  had 
learned  these  differences  in  men,  I  would  en- 
quire whether  Mr.  So-and-So  had  any  children; 
and  if  the  answer  Avas  no,  I  would  pass  onto  a 
house  where  there  were  children,  if  such  could 
be  found  in  the  time  left  for  me  to  travel  in 
the  day. 

I  never  traveled  in  the  night,  except  when  it 
was  absolutely  necessary. 

I  arrived  at  Fayetteville  at  last,  but  found 
the  tow^n  so  run  down  that  I  did  mot  attempt 
to  do  any  work  there.  The  boats  that  used  to 
come  up  to  Fayetteville  from  Wilmington,  on 
the  Cape  Fear  River,  had  stopped  running,  and 
there  was  no  railroad  coming  to  Fayetteville 
at  this  time. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  143 

I  laid  out  a  trip  by  my  map  that  would  take 
me  out  of  Cumberland  County  into  Sampson 
County,  and  through  Sampson  into  Pender 
County,  coming  out  at  Burgaw.  From  Burgaw 
I  went  on  into  New  Hanover  County,  and  to 
Wilmington,  which  at  that  time  was  the  lar- 
gest and  most  thrifty  town  or  city  in  North 
Carolina. 

I  did  right  good  work  in  Sampson  County, 
sold  some  good  jobs,  and  by  giving  liberal  dis- 
counts, got  the  cash  for  nearly  all  the  work 
that  I  did. 

When  I  landed  in  Wilmington  I  had  plenty 
of  money.  I  had  learned  a  lesson,  too,  about 
cash.  I  had  sent  in  to  Mr.  Lee  nearly  all  the 
cash  I  had  on  hand  and  had  been  put  in  tight 
quarters  on  account  of  it  many  times  before. 
A  hotel  man  did  not  like  to  see  a  lightning  rod 
man  go  off  leaving  a  bill  unpaid.  Sometimes 
we  w^ould  be  stopped  by  a  sheriff  who  wanted  a 
license  taken  out  in  his  county.  This  w^ould 
cost  twenty  dollars  for  the  year.  To  be  shorii 
of  cash  and  a  long  way  from  home,  among 
strangers,  with  two  horses  to  feed  and  two 
men  to  be  fed  and  housed,  is  an  experience  that 
alw^ays  made  me  feel  mighty  bad.  There  was 
something  in  it  that  made  me  feel  like  a  fugi- 
tive from  justice.  I  expected  some  strange 
man  to  walk  up  to  me  and  say,  "I  want  you, 
come  along.''     I  was  not  my  true  self  without 


144       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

a  hundred  dollars  or  so  in  my  pocket.  It  made 
no  difference  to  me  whether  the  money  be- 
longed to  my  company  or  to  me,  I  needed  it  to 
feel  safe  and  respectable.  Without  it  I  was 
handicapped.  I  did  not  have  the  nerve,  the 
confidence  in  myself  or  the  resolution  to  prose- 
cute my  business  with  the  same  spirit  that  I 
did  when  I  had  it. 

Arriving  in  Wilmington  with  this  goodly  sum 
of  money  in  my  pocket,  again  disregarding  the 
instructions  of  my  boss,  Mr.  Lee,  who  would 
have  had  me  send  to  him  every  dollar  that  I 
had  except  iiYe  or  ten  dollars,  I  was  in  good 
shape  to  go  to  work  in  Wilmington.  I  went 
straight  to  the  National  Hotel,  the  best  in  the 
town,  told  the  clerk  that  I  would  be  there 
for  three  months,  and  asked  for  rates.  He 
made  me  a  rate  of  one  dollar  and  a  half  per 
day.  I  got  board  for  my  man  for  five  dollars 
per  week.  I  got  my  horses  in  the  livery  stable 
for  fifteen  dollars  per  month  each. 

The  first  day  I  w^ent  to  the  depot  to  get  some 
rods  that  I  had  ordered.  We  usually  unhitched 
the  outside  trace,  and  left  the  horses  alone,  but 
this  day  the  man  neglected  to  do  so,  and  some- 
thing came  along  and  frightened  them,  and 
away  they  went  down  the  street  toward  the 
barn.  They  scattered  lightning  rods  all  along 
the  street  for  a  mile.  They  turned  four  cor- 
ners, went  straight  to  the  stables,  slacked  up 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  145 

just  before  turning  in  and  went  into  the  barn 
decently  and  in  order.  They  did  no  damage  to 
anybody  nor  to  the  wagon  or  to  themselves^ 
which  seems  almost  a  miracle,  for  they  passed 
through  two  of  the  busiest  streets  in^a  run. 

The  next  morning  the  two  papers  had  the 
runaway  written  up  in  a  very  lively  style.  One 
of  them  said  "that  it  w^as  usual  to  see  lightning 
rods  go  up;  but  yesterday  was  an  exception,  as 
the  rods  went  down  with  a  vengeance.''  The 
other  paper  wanted  to  know  "what  this  Mr. 
Battle  of  Raleigh,  the  lightning  rod  man,  had 
against  Wilmington?  Did  he  want  to  stop  its 
growth  by  killing  off  its  citizens?"  So  be- 
tween the  two  papers  everybody  in  Wilming- 
ton who  read  them  knew  that  Mr.  Battle,  the 
Lightning  Rod  Man  of  Raleigh,  was  in  town. 
This  free  advertising  helped  me  greatly,  for 
when  I  presented  myself  there  was  no  explana- 
tion necessary,  for  they  already  knew  who  T 
was  and  where  I  was  from  and  my  business. 
I  did  over  eleven  thousand  dollars  worth  of 
business  in  Wilmington. 

While  in  Wilmington  I  wrote  four  letters  to 
my  sweetheart  back  in  Clayton.  I  received 
only  one  in  return.  This  gave  me  great  pain; 
but  I  was  too  busy  to  sit  down  and  brood  over 
my  misery. 

From  Wilmington  I  started  for  Columbia, 
S.  C.     I  passed  through  those  immense  pine 


146       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

forests,  which  at  that  time  could  have  been 
bought  for  two  dollars  per  acre.  Since  then 
fortunes  have  been  taken  out  in  the  turpentine, 
and  now  immense  lumber  mills  are  making  for- 
tunes for  their  owners  in  the  finest  yellow  pine 
lumber  in  the  whole  world. 

This  brought  the  summer  and  fall  season  to 
a  close.  I  landed  in  Columbia  about  the  mid- 
dle of  November.  I  made  my  arrangements  to 
spend  the  winter  there,  doing  all  the  work 
there  that  I  could  in  good  w^eather.  The  win- 
ters in  South  Carolina  are  mild  and  pleasant 
except  for  the  many  rains  which  come  in  the 
spring.  I  did  well  in  Columbia,  and  when 
spring  came  I  was  ready  to  work  in  the  moun- 
tains in  the  western  part  of  the  state  during 
the  summer.  That  is  a  fine  country,  through 
Greenville,  Spartanburg,  Laurens,  Anderson, 
Abbeville  and  Greenwood  Counties,  and  each 
county  seat  has  the  same  name  as  the  county. 
I  spent  the  whole  summer  in  these  counties, 
except  a  trip  I  made  into  Georgia  from  Abbe- 
ville County.  I  spent  about  two  weeks  in 
Georgia.  I  met  there  a  Mr.  Lipscombe,  travel- 
ing for  the  same  company  that  I  was.  He  told 
me  that  he  had  done  well  in  selling  rods,  but 
he  said,  "I  cannot  get  any  money.  I  put  up 
the  rods  on  a  credit,  and  then  the  man  will 
make  me  pay  hira  cash  for  staying  all  night. 
What  do  vou  think  of  that?"     He   wanted  to 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  147 

credit  the  amount  charged  for  the  night's  en- 
tertainment on  the  note  that  he  took  for  the 
rods,  but  his  customer  would  not  permit  it. 
The  explanation  of  the  customer  being  that 
Mr.  Lipscombe  had  proposed  to  put  up  the  rods 
on  a  credit,  and  was  now  demanding  a  part  of 
it  in  cash.  He  said  food  was  cash,  and  as  soon 
as  it  was  out  he  had  to  have  the  cash  to  buy 
more  with;  hence  he  wanted  cash  for  the  food 
that  he  had  supplied  to  Mr.  Liscombe. 

This  was  exactly  my  experience  for  the 
whole  two  weeks  while  I  was  in  Georgia.  I 
had  over  one  hundred  dollars  in  my  pocket 
when  I  went  into  Georgia.  It  cost  me  an  av- 
erage of  three  dollars  cash  per  day  for  every 
day  that  I  was  in  Georgia.  When  I  met  Mr. 
Lipscombe  he  had  no  money,  and  he  intended 
to  go  to  Augusta  and  wait  till  Mr.  Lee  sent 
him  some.  I  told  him  if  he  waited  in  Augusta 
till  Mr.  Lee  sent  him  some  money,  that  he 
would  owe  a  big  bill  when  the  money  arrived. 
So  I  divided  my  money  with  him  and  told  him 
to  leave  Georgia  and  come  over  to  South  Caro- 
lina. So  he  followed  me,  and  we  crossed  the 
Savannah  River  somewhere  near  Alpine. 
AVhen  we  landed  in  Anderson  County,  South 
Carolina,  he  and  I  had  just  fifty  cents  in  cash 
between  us,  with  four  men  and  four  horses  to 
feed  till  we  could  take  in  some  cash.  I  told 
him  that  I  knew  the  landlord  of  the  hotel  at 


148      TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

Pendleton  and  we  could  make  this  headquar- 
ters until  we  got  on  our  feet  again.  So  we 
made  the  drive  in  one  day  and  landed  in  Pen- 
dleton about  eight  o'clock  at  night.  We  had 
driven  twenty  miles  over  some  rough  roads 
since  dinner.  We  spent  the  fifty  cents  for 
horse  feed,  and  divided  the  food  between  the 
four  horses.  We  mixed  shelled  corn  and  oats 
together,  and  it  gave  each  one  two  quarts  each. 
This  was  hardly  enough  foi?  horses  doing  so 
much  work.  It  should  have  been  three  or  four 
quarts,  but  the  horses  did  not  complain,  and 
we  had  done  the  best  that  we  could,  so  our 
consciences  were  easy. 

I  had  some  sardines,  some  bacon,  some  crack- 
ers and  coffee,  a  coffee  pot  and  a  frying  pan, 
and  we  got  along  very  well;  if  I  had  had  some 
money  I  would  have  added  eggs  and  cheese, 
but  we  did  not  grumble.  We  were  so  glad 
to  get  out  of  Georgia  that  the  fact  that  we  had 
done  so  was  very  consoling. 

The  landlord  at  Pendleton  was  surprised  to 
see  two  wagons  drive  in  so  late  at  night,  but  I 
told  him  there  was  a  crack  in  one  of  my  ladders 
and  I  wanted  to  get  it  mended  before  I  broke 
my  neck;  that  I  had  met  Mr.  Lipscombe,  who 
had  come  along  as  company.  The  women  folks 
hated  to  go  back  into  the  kitchen  and  cook  an- 
other supper,  and  when  I  heard  them  talking 
1  went  in  and  said,  ^^Ladies,  I  don't  blame  you. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  149 

If  I  were  you  I  would  not  cook  supper  for 
such  trifling  men  as  these  lightning  rod  fel- 
lows, who  come  straggling  in  at  such  a  late 
hour/'  but  I  said  further,  being  one  of  the 
triflers,  I  was  one  of  the  men  who  would  suffer, 
"Now,  I  will  tell  you  what  I  will  do.  If  you 
will  give  me  some  flour,  lard,  salt,  some  bacon 
or  ham  and  some  eggs  and  some  coffee,  you 
may  sit  down  there  and  see  what  a  cook  I  am, 
and  I  will  tell  you  a  good  story  on  the  other 
fellow,  Mr.  Lipscombe,  who  is  very  handsome 
and  has  a  sweetheart  over  in  Georgia."  With 
this  running  gossip  I  got  the  ladies  in  a  good 
humor,  and  they  accepted  my  proposition  and 
gave  me  everything  that  I  called  for.  I  called 
for  my  negro  man,  Howell,  and  asked  him  to 
bring  in  some  wood  and  start  the  fire,  which 
he  did,  and  while  I  was  making  up  the  biscuit 
I  asked  for  baking  powders,  but  she  had  none; 
she  had  some  soda;  I  took  this  and  asked  for 
some  sour  milk  or  buttermilk;  luckily  she  had 
some.  Then  I  went  to  work  on  the  biscuits, 
and  told  her  this  story:  Over  in  Georgia, 
where  we  came  from  to-day,  in  that  section  of 
the  country  somewhere  north  of  the  town  of 
Hartwell,  we  stopped  with  a  Scotchman  named 
McEachin,  who  had  a  mighty  pretty  daughter, 
and  Mr.  Lipscombe  had  fallen  in  love  with  her, 
and  I  heard  him  tell  her  that  He  was  going  off 
to  make  a  fortune,  and  was  coming  back  to 


150       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

marry  her  if  she  would  have  him.  He  said, 
^'Of  course  I  would  not  ask  you  to  marry  me 
after  knowing  me  for  less  than  a  day;  but  1 
am  a  real  nice  man  when  you  know  me,  but  I 
am  too  poor  to  marry  now,  so  I  must  make 
some  money,  and  then  I  will  come  back."  Well, 
when  the  time  came  for  us  to  go  to  bed,  the  old 
man  showed  us  out  into  a  shed  room;  it  was 
the  weaving  room,  for  there  w^as  a  loom  set 
up  in  it,  and  there  was  a  piece  of  cloth  in  the 
loom.  It  was  a  nice  piece  of  gray  goods  for 
men's  clothes.  Mr.  Lipscombe,  after  Mr. 
]\IcEachin  left  us  a  candle  and  went  away,  said 
^^I  bet  that  pretty  girl  has  been  weaving  on  that 
cloth  to-da}^  Now,  I  tell  you,  that  is  the  kind 
of  girl  that  I  want,  one  that  is  not  afraid  of 
work,  and  ain't  she  a  beauty?"  At  last  I  said, 
"Shut  up,  you  will  make  the  old  man  hear  you 
directly,  talking  so  loud,  and  he  will  come  out 
here  and  order  us  off."  So  this  made  him  lower 
his  voice,  though  he  kept  on  talking.  At  last 
Ave  got  in  bed,  for  we  had  both  to  sleep  in  one 
bed.  The  light  was  out  and  still  I  heard  the 
mumbling  of  his  voice  going  on  about  his  newly 
discovered  beauty.  I  told  him  again  I  had 
heard  all  of  that  that  I  wanted  to  hear  that 
night.  So  at  last  he  either  stoped  talking,  or 
I  dropped  off  to  sleep,  for  I  heard  him  no  more. 

When  I  waked  up  it  was  broad  daylight,  and 
as  we  wanted  to  make  an  early  start,  we  both 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  151 

got  up  and  were  dressed  in  a  few  minutes. 
AVlien  we  went  to  bed  he  put  his  waistcoat 
under  the  head  of  his  pillow,  and  I  put  mine 
down  in  the  bed  and  slept  on  it.  When  he 
raised  the  pillow  to  get  his  waistcoat  I  heard 
him  say  ''Good  God!  look  there!''  I  looked  and 
there  was  a  highland  moccasin  lying  curled  up 
under  his  pillow.  I  got  his  waistcoat  for  him 
and  dropped  the  pillow  back  on  the  snake.  Mr. 
Lipscombe  is  very  much  afraid  of  snakes. 
When  we  went  to  breakfast  there  was  the  pret- 
ty girl,  all  dressed  up,  with  her  hair  all  curled, 
looking  much  perttier  to  me  than  she  didithe 
day  before,  but  Mr.  Lipscombe  did  not  seem 
to  notice  it.  He  said  very  little  to  the  young 
lady,  so  little,  in  fact,  that  she  noted  it,  and 
asked  him  if  he  was  feeling  well  this  morning. 
His  mind  was  still  on  the  snake,  and  he  hardly 
heard  what  she  said.  I  noticed  a  pained  look 
on  the  girPs  face;  for  I  do  believe  that  she  had 
taken  a  liking  to  Mr.  Lipscombe.  I  spoke  up 
and  said,  "After  breakfast  I  will  tell  you  what 
is  the  matter  with  Mr.  Lipscombe."  She  said 
right  away,  "I  hope  it  is  not  something  that  1 
have  done."  I  said,  "No,  it  is  not  you,  but  is 
something  very  serious  to  absorb  his  mind  like 
that."  Mr.  Lipscombe  looked  at  me  and  said, 
"Now  look  here,  Jess,  don't  you  tell  that  on 
me."  This  aroused  the  girl's  curiosity  to  such 
a  pitch  that  she  could  hardly  finish  her  break- 


152       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

fast,  she  wanted  to  know  so  much.  After 
breakfast  I  told  her  father  that  if  he  could 
go  and  look  under  the  pillow  on  the  front  side 
of  our  bed  that  he  would  find  out  what  was  the 
matter  with  Mr.  Lipscombe,  and  he  could  tell 
his  daughter  after  we  were  gone. 

The  old  man's  curiosity  was  aroused  too, 
so  he  went  right  out  to  the  loom  room  and  in 
a  minute  we  heard  him  say.  Bring  me  my  gun, 
quick.  A  boy  carried  the  gun  and  a  minute 
later  we  heard  it  explode.  We  looked  at  the 
girl  and  she  turned  pale  and  fainted  and  would 
have  fallen  to  the  floor  but  for  Mr.  Lipscombe's 
strong  arms. 

After  a  while,  by  bathing  her  face  with  cold 
water,  she  opened  her  eyes,  and  asked,  "Is  he 
dead?"  I  said  yes,  meaning  the  snake,  and 
she  screamed  again,  "My  poor  father,"  and 
then  I  understood.  She  thought  that  her  father 
had  killed  himself. 

We  left  them,  but  do  you  know  that  I  have 
not  heard  Mr.  Lipscombe  say  a  word  about  that 
pretty  girl  since. 

By  this  time  I  had  finished  cooking  the  sup- 
per; that  is,  I  did  a  part  of  it  for  my  story  and 
my  willingness  to  help  do  the  work  had  won 
the  good  will  of  the  ladies  and  they  had  turned 
in  and  did  most  of  the  work. 

The  next  morning  I  tackled  the  landlord  to 
let  me  tear  down  his  old  lightning  rod  and  put 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  153 

up  a  new  one.  He  said  that  he  knew  it  was 
in  a  bad  fix,  as  I  had  explained  to  him  once 
before  but  he  had  no  money  to  spend  on  light- 
ning rods,  and  did  not  want  to  go  in  debt,  but 
if  I  was  going  to  be  around  the  neighborhood 
long  enough  to  board  out  the  bill  that  I  might 
do  the  work.  I  said  alright  and  went  right 
out  to  Lipseombe  and  said,  "We  are  saved 
again.  I  am  going  to  tear  down  that  rod  and 
put  up  a  new  one." 

He  said,  "Jess,  you  beat  the  devil." 

This  Mr.  Lipseombe  was  a  fine  man,  well  edu- 
cated, handsome,  sociable  and  mighty  good 
company.  I  got  well  acquainted  with  him  and 
he  told  me  some  things  in  confidence  that  I 
have  kept  sacred  all  these  years,  but  as  he  is 
dead  and  was  in  no  way  to  blame  for  what  he 
did,  and  not  culpable  before  the  law,  and  the 
communication  was,  and  is  such  a  fine  illustra- 
tion of  the  real  condition  of  the  negroes  im- 
mediately after  the  Civil  War  that  I  give  here 
for  the  first  time  his  story. 

He  said,  "I  have  not  been  home  for  four 
years.  I  live  near  Danville,  Va.;  my  people 
do  not  know  where  I  am,  and  my  name  is  not 
Lipseombe." 

My  ears  were  wide  open.  I  was  all  atten- 
tion, for  I  knew  there  was  a  good  story  back 
of  this  prelude. 


154       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

He  continued,  "Near  where  I  live  is  a  negro 
church,  every  night  and  I  mean  Sunday,  Mon- 
day, Tuesday,  Wednesday,  Thursday,  Friday, 
and  Saturday,  these  negroes  would  have 
church  meetings,  preaching,  praying,  singing, 
and  I  could  hear  them  after  I  got  into  my 
bed. 

"Sometimes  I  would  take  a  nap  and  wake 
up  and  I  would  hear  them  singing.  One  day 
w^hen  I  went  down  to  our  barn  to  feed  up  the 
stock,  I  noticed  a  curious  funnel  in  the  corn 
pile.  It  looked  as  if  somebody  had  made  a  hole 
in  the  back  of  the  barn  and  the  corn  was  run- 
ning out  of  this  hole.  I  went  around  the  back 
of  the  barn  and  examined  the  boards,  and  I 
found  one  had  been  taken  off  with  a  nail  pul- 
ler. I  could  see  the  dents  in  the  wood  on  both 
sides  of  the  nail  heads;  after  the  nails  had 
been  drawn  out  and  the  board  removed,  the 
nails  had  been  put  back  into  the  board,  and 
the  long  points  broken  off,  so  that  they  would 
no  longer  hold  the  board  in  place;  the  nail 
heads  still  showed  on  the  outside,  as  if  they 
were  still  doing  duty.  There  were  two  other 
nails  driven  in  below  the  opening  made  where 
the  board  was  removed.  I  examined  these 
two  nails  and  found  some  tow  lint  sticking  to 
one  of  them.  Then  I  knew  that  somebody  was 
stealing  my  corn.  A  tow  sack  or  bag  had  been 
used,  and  here  were  the  two  nails  that  the 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  155 

sack  was  suspended  by  to  expedite  the  filling 
process. 

^'I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  would  investi- 
gate; so  that  night  I  took  my  gun  and  got 
into  an  empty  pig  pen  where  I  was  easily 
concealed.  About  11  o'clock  I  saw  a  man 
come,  take  off  the  board,  hang  up  his  sack 
and  proceeded  in  the  most  leisurely  manner 
to  fill  his  sack  with  my  corn.  I  waited  until 
he  had  filled  the  sack,  tied  up  the  open  end, 
picked  it  up,  put  it  on  his  shoulder  to  go  away^ 
then  I  gave  him  the  contents  of  both  barrels 
of  my  gun. 

"It  was  loaded  with  fifteen  buckshot  in  each 
barrel;  the  man  tumbled  over;  I  got  out  of  the 
pig  pen  on  the  opposite  side  where  the  man 
had  fallen.  I  waited  a  few  minutes  to  see  if 
he  would  move;  he  did  not  move;  so  I  went 
to  my  room  and  went  to  bed.  I  did  not  sleep  a 
Avink  that  night.  I  knew  exactly  the  hour 
when  the  singing  at  the  church  stopped.  It 
was  five  minutes  past  1  o'clock,  a.  m. 

"I  waited  for  about  an  hour  and  then  went 
back  and  looked  at  my  man  from  behind  my 
pig  pen.  He  was  still  lying  as  he  fell.  I  went 
back  to  my  room  and  waited  for  some  one  to 
call  me  and  tell  me  about  the  tragedy.  As 
soon  as  it  began  to  turn  light,  one  of  the  ne- 
groes came  to  my  room  and  said  excitedly  that 
'there  was  a  dead  nigger  down  there  back  of 


156       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

the  barn.'  He  said,  'That  nigger  had  taken  a 
board  off  the  barn  and  stole  some  corn  and 
somebody  had  shot  and  killed  him  dead."  ' 
Mr.  Lipscombe  asked,  "Who  was  the  dead 
man?''  The  negro  said,  ''It  was  the  preach- 
er.'' He  said  further,  ''I  was  at  the  meeting 
last  night  and  the  preacher  said,  'Pray  on, 
brethren,  I  will  join  you  later.'  " 

Mr.  Lipscombe  asked  the  negro  who  had 
shot  the  preacher?  The  negro  said,  "It  must 
have  been  some  of  the  Ku  Klux." 

The  coroner  commenced  an  investigation  and 
the  negroes  did  all  they  could  to  help  him 
unravel  the  mystery  of  the  killing,  but  to  no 
avail.  The  verdict  was,  "Death  by  a  gunshot 
wound  in  the  hands  of  some  party  unknown, 
justifiable  homicide." 

Mr.  Lipscombe  said,  "I  stayed  around  home 
for  about  a  month,  then  some  friends  told  me 
that  the  negroes  had  made  up  their  minds 
that  I  killed  the  preacher  and  that  they  were 
liable  to  assassinate  me  any  night  when  I 
went  out,  and  advised  me  to  get  a  job  that 
would  take  me  away  from  home  and  this  is 
the  reason  that  I  am  a  lightning  rod  man." 

I  parted  with  Mr.  Lipscombe  early  in  the 
spring  of  1872.  I  have  never  seen  him  since. 
I  met  Mr.  Lee  years  after  this  and  he  told  me 
Mr.  Lipscombe  was  dead. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OP  MY  LIFE.  157 

The  work  I  did  for  the  landlord  at  Pendleton 
kept  us  both  fed  and  lodged  for  about  ten 
days,  and  during  this  time  I  had  picked  up 
over  three  hundred  dollars  in  cash  and  about 
six  hundred  dollars  in  notes. 

These  counties  that  I  have  mentioned  were 
all  prosperous  and  I  did  well. 

I  wanted  to  go  back  to  Clayton  and  see  what 
w^as  the  matter  with  my  sweetheart,  but  I  said 
to  myself,  "I  am  not  ready  to  marry  yet,  so  I 
had  better  wait." 

So  I  spent  the  following  summer  in  South 
Carolina.  I  had  some  vivid  experiences  that 
summer.  The  one  event  more  indellibly  im- 
pressed on  my  memory  was  a  runaway  smash- 
up  one  day,  w^hen  I  was  nearly  killed.  We, 
my  negro,  Howell  Shines,  and  I,  were  going 
down  a  long  red  hill.  It  was  cloudy  and  very 
dark;  it  looked  like  a  storm  w^as  brewing.  T 
felt  a  little  anxious  about  the  outcome,  as  my 
horses  were  very  spirited  and  sensitive  to  the 
whip.  I  was  looking  for  shelter  and  expected 
to  be  at  a  farmer's  house  in  about  twenty  min- 
utes as  it  was  only  two  miles  distant,  but  the 
storm  caught  us  while  we  were  going  down 
that  long  red  hill;  it  rained  hard  for  a  few 
minutes,  but  we  were  protected  with  rubber 
coats  and  a  rubber  lap  robe;  soon  it  began 
to  hail.  I  spoke  to  Howell  to  get  his  reins 
well  in  hand,  for  I  knew  the  horses  would  try 


158       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

to  get  away  from  the  lashing,  as  they  con- 
ceived the  hail  to  be.  Howell  said,  '^  I  have 
got  them.''  I  said,  ''Keep  your  brakes  on 
tight.''  He  answered,  "I've  got  'em  as  tight 
as  I  can." 

In  a  few  minutes  I  felt  the  wagon  running 
on  the  horses.  I  said,  ''The  brakes  are  worn 
out  and  doing  no  good."  It  got  so  dark  that 
we  could  hardly  see  enough  to  keep  in  the 
road.  The  horses  got  faster  and  finally  broke 
into  a  run.  We  were  going  down  that  hill 
like  an  express  train.  There  was  a  creek  at 
the  bottom  of  the  hill,  just  before  we  got  to 
this  creek,  a  large  tree  had  fallen  across  the 
road,  but  some  one  had  cut  out,  with  a  saw, 
a  section  wide  enough  to  allow  vehicles  to 
pass;  our  wagon  was  too  far  to  the  right,  and 
our  right  hand  wheels  went  up  on  the  end 
of  this  tree  at  the  speed  of  a  running  horse. 
The  wagon  jumped  up  into  the  air  so  quickly 
and  so  high  that  it  turned  over  tow^ard  the 
left.  Howell,  being  on  the  right  side,  was 
thrown  against  me  in  the  fall.  He  went  clear, 
but  I  went  under  the  wagon.  I  was  being 
dragged  along  the  road  so  fast  I  felt  the  top 
of  my  head  rubbing  against  the  ground.  I  felt 
my  left  ankle  twist  out  of  joint,  and  thought 
my  spinal  chord  w^as  being  pulled  apart.  I 
felt  that  my  right  shoulder  was  broken.  I  felt 
water  splash  in  my  face,  and  still  I  could  re- 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  159 

alize  it  all.  I  knew  that  I  was  caught  under 
that  w^agun  and  wondered  how  it  would  end, 
and  it  was  done  so  quickly  and  came  to  a 
stop  just  as  quickly.  That  I  did  not  know  then, 
but  learned  afterwards.  All  I  knew  then  was 
the  wagon  was  still,  something  had  stopped  the 
runaway  horses;  but  w^hat  was  it?  I  was  pin- 
ioned under  the  wagon  and  could  not  move.  I 
heard  Howell's  voice  asking  if  I  was  hurt. 
I  said,  ^'Yes,  get  this  wagon  off  me.''  He  said, 
*^I  will  in  a  minute."  I  heard  him  jerk  on  the 
rein  of  one  of  the  horses  and  say,  "Damn  you, 
I  would  like  to  kill  you."  I  heard  the  rattle 
of  chains,  then  I  became  unconscious.  I  knew 
no  more  for  nearly  a  week. 

When  I  became  conscious  again  I  was  at 
the  house  of  the  Kev.  Mr.  Wm.  B.  Jones,  who 
lived  at  the  little  village  in  Greenwood  County 
that  I  had  left  before  the  storm.  I  was  in  a 
little  back  room,  and  Mrs.  Jones  and  her 
daughter,  Venie,  were  both  sitting  there 
watching  me.  I  wanted  to  know  all  about 
it,  but  they  would  tell  me  nothing.  Mrs.  Jones 
said,  "Later;  now  you  must  be  quiet."  I  lay 
there  for  days  and  weeks. 

I  felt  that  every  bone  in  my  body  had  been 
broken.  I  was  so  sore.  When  I  got  better 
Mr.  Lee  came  to  see  me  and  explained  the 
events  as  they  occurred  after  I  became  un- 
conscious.   He  said  the  horses  passed  through 


160       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

the  creek,  dragging  the  wagon  after  them; 
that  just  beyond  the  creek  the  horses  had  at- 
tempted to  pass  on  the  opposite  sides  of  a  large 
standing  tree  and  this  tree  is  what  stopped 
them.  The  singletrees  were  both  broken,  but 
the  breast  yoke  had  held  them  together;  they 
were  standing  with  their  faces  toward  the 
wagon.  He  said  Howell  had  tried  to  get  me 
out  from  under  the  w^agon,  but  failing,  he  had 
ridden  one  of  the  horses  to  the  farmer's  house 
two  miles  away,  and  brought  him  and  two 
or  three  other  men  with  him.  He  said  they 
had  found  my  head  between  the  spokes  of  the 
front  wheel  and  my  left  foot  between  the 
spokes  of  the  hind  wheel.  They  sawed  the 
spokes  out  to  get  me  out.  They  carried  me 
first  to  the  farmer's  house.  I  believe  his  name 
was  Miller.  I  was  so  badly  hurt  they  thought 
it  best  to  take  me  to  the  village  where  the 
doctor  lived,  hence  my  presence  in  Mr.  Jones' 
house.  Mr.  Lee  told  me  that  I  would  get  well, 
but  it  would  take  a  long  time. 

Every  movement  I  made  gave  me  pain  for 
at  least  two  weeks;  after  this  I  commenced 
to  improve  more  rapidly  and  as  I  grew  bet- 
ter Mrs.  Jones  and  her  daughter,  Venie,,  then 
fifteen  years  old,  did  all  they  could  to  amuse 
me  and  help  to  pass  away  the  tedious  hours  of 
convalescence.  They  spared  no  labor  or  pains  in 
nursing  and  caring  for  me;  had  I  been  in  a 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  161 

hospital,  I  could  not  have  had  better  care. 

Mrs.  Jones  was  a  highly  cultured  woman, 
a  fine  musician,  playing  almost  any  piece  of 
music  at  first  sight  on  the  piano  or  organ.  She 
also  had  a  good  voice  and  sang  well.  The 
daughter  gave  promise  of  being  just  as  fine 
a  musician  as  her  mother.  Both  the  mother 
and  daughter  were  near-sighted,  and  wore 
those  curious  glasses  which  made  the  eyes 
look  so  exaggerated.  When  I  would  look 
at  Venie's  innocent  girlish  face,  with  her  rosy 
cheeks  and  dark  eyes,  I  would  say  to  myself, 
"She  is  pretty,"  but  then  my  mind  would  im- 
mediately turn  back  to  Clayton,  N.  C.  I  could 
see  some  other  brown  eyes  that  were  so  much 
more  beautiful  that  I  even  ceased  to  think 
Venie  pretty. 

At  last  I  was  well  enough  to  ride  on  my 
wagon  again.  So  with  a  heart  full  of  grati- 
tude for  all  the  kindnesses  showm  me,  and 
paying  up  my  debts  as  far  as  money  could  pay 
them,  I  bid  my  dear,  new-found  friends  good- 
bye. 

I  went  out  of  my  way  when  I  was  getting 
ready  to  leave  the  state,  just  to  thank  them 
again  and  tell  them  good-bye.  That  was  the 
last  time  I  saw  them.  I  have  written  several 
letters  there,  to  Greenwood,  their  postoffice, 
and  all  of  them  came  back.  So  they  must  have 
died  or  moved  away. 


162       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

After  leaving  this  place  I  was  hardly  able 
to  work,  but  I  could  still  talk  and  sell  light- 
ing rods.  The  long  rides  in  the  wagon  wore 
me  out.  My  back  would  be  so  tired  and  ache 
so  much  that  at  last  I  had  some  thick  cushions 
made  to  put  in  between  my  ladders,  and  I 
would  lie  down  there  to  ride  from  house  to 
house.  I  would  go  in,  and  sell  the  rods  and 
have  Howell  to  put  them  up.  So  I  was  still 
doing  good  work  when  I  was  not  able  to  sit 
up  all  day. 

Out  about  two  miles  from  Cokesbury,  S.  C, 
I  found  a  farmer  and  merchant,  a  Mr.  Wil- 
liam A.  Moore,  with  a  wife,  three  daughters 
and  two  sons.  I  met  all  the  members  of  this 
family  except  the  second  daughter,  Miss  Mol- 
lie,  who  was  off  to  a  boarding  school. 

The  wife  was  one  of  the  kindest  and  most 
considerate  of  women.  I  came  to  her  house 
a  perfect  stranger,  just  after  my  terrible  ex- 
perience as  the  result  of  the  runaway  smash- 
up.  She  could  see  what  an  effort  it  was  for 
me  to  get  around,  for  I  still  used  a  cane  and 
one  crutch.  She  knew  that  I  needed  a  moth- 
er's care  and  a  mother's  sympathy.  One  day 
she  asked  me  why  I  did  not  go  home  to  my 
mother.  I  told  her  that  I  was  too  poor  to  go 
home  to  be  a  burden  to  my  mother.  This 
seemed  to  touch  her  greatly  and  she  told  me 
to  come  to  her  house  every  time  that  I  was  in 


AND  SOIVTE  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  163 

the  neighborhood  and  especially  on  Saturday 
afternoon  and  stay  over  Sunday.  The  invita- 
tion was  also  repeated  by  Mr.  Moore,  and 
given  in  such  a  way  that  I  did  not  hesitate  to 
accept  it.  I  went  there  every  Saturday  after- 
noon for  several  months.  Mr.  Moore  would 
never  accept  any  money  for  the  lovely  enter- 
tainment they  extended  to  me.  I  tried  to  even 
up  by  giving  presents  to  little  Wardlaw,  the 
youngest,  and  Maimie,  the  youngest  daugh- 
ter, seven  and  ten  years  old. 

The  oldest  daughter  was  Miss  Janie,  one  of 
the  loveliest  girls  that  I  ever  met.  She  was 
beautiful,  kind  and  a  very  fine  musician.  I 
did  love  her  and  for  her  kindness  to  me  and  for 
her  tender  consideration  for  the  poor  afflicted 
stranger  who  came  to  her  door,  I  love  her  yet. 
Had  I  not  met  the  lady  at  Clayton,  who  was 
one  day  to  become  my  wife,  it  is  no  telling 
what  might  have  happened,  for  Miss  Janie  was 
one  of  the  most  congenial  spirits  that  I  ever 
met. 

She  was  three  years  older  than  I,  and  for 
this  reason  she  never  looked  upon  me  as  a 
beau.  She  treated  me  like  a  younger  brother. 
She  was  such  good  company  in  a  quiet  way, 
that  I  never  tired  being  with  her.  We  sang 
together,  we  read  books  to  one  another,  we 
went  to  church  together  and  read  the  service 
out  of  the  same  prayer  book.     She  was    an 


164       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

Episcopalian.  The  neighbors  who  saw  us  to- 
gether so  much  at  church,  on  the  roads  driving, 
at  her  house  and  at  the  neighbors,  where  we 
visited,  thought  surely  that  there  was  a  wed- 
ding in  prospect,  but  they  only  saw  two  con- 
genial souls,  who  were  happy  in  each  other's 
society. 

Miss  Janie  knew  that  I  was  too  poor  to 
marry,  for  she  heard  me  say  so  in  the  presence 
of  Mr.  Moore  and  Mrs.  Moore  one  day  when  I 
said,  "That  a  man  who  had  nothing,  and  was  a 
bohemian,  on  the  go  from  place  to  place,  with 
no  settled  home,  had  no  business  getting  mar- 
ried, he  would  do  the  lady  a  great  injus- 
tice if  he  knew  that  he  was  to  take  her  out 
of  a  life  of  comfort  and  put  her  into  a  life  of 
drudgery.  It  was  not  only  an  injustice  to 
the  lady,  it  was  really  a  criminal  act  born 
not  of  love,  but  of  a  selfish  passion."  After 
this  speech,  Mr.  Moore  and  his  wife  never  fear- 
ed to  trust  Miss  Janie  to  my  care. 

It  was  with  the  deepest  regret  that  I  ap 
preached  the  time  when  I  was  to  leave  this 
neighborhood,  and  to  leave  these  dear  friends, 
for  they  were  so  kind  to  me.  I  loved  them  then 
and  I  love  them  now.  It  has  been  a  greater 
regret  that  all  during  these  thirty-nine  years 
the  claims  on  my  time  and  my  duty  to  those 
whose  claims  cannot  be  ignored,  have  not  per- 
mitted me  to  see  them  again.    I  have  intended 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  165 

and  still  intend,  that  if  the  opportunity  pre- 
sents itself,  I  will  see  some  of  them  again.  If 
this  is  denied  me  here  on  earth,  I  will  certainly 
look  them  up  in  the  world  to  come,  if  permitted 
to  do  so. 

While  I  am  on  accidents  and  their  results, 
or  I  might  say,  consequences,  I  will  mention 
two  other  accidents  that  happened  to  me  in 
South  Carolina.  One  was  in  Columbia,  when 
1  got  a  terrible  fall  from  the  top  of  a  two- 
story  building  and  escaped  being  killed.  I  was 
on  the  shingle  roof,  working  my  way  down 
to  the  ground.  It  was  a  steep  roof,  about  an 
angle  of  forty-five  degrees.  I  had  on  rubber 
shoes,  and  also  had  the  lightning  rod  that  I 
w^as  putting  up  to  hold  on  to.  I  saw  a  shingle 
with  the  turpentine  oozing  out,  drawn  out  by 
the  heat  of  the  sun.  I  knew  that  my  foot 
would  stick  on  this  turpentine,  so  I  put  my 
whole  weight  on  this  one  foot;  the  nail  in 
the  shingle  gave  way  and  I  was  thrown  on  my 
knees  and  hands,  the  fall  putting  me  out  of 
reach  of  my  rod.  I  had  a  gimlet  in  my  hand 
and  tried  to  stop  my  sliding  downward  with 
it,  but  failed.  There  was  only  one  chance,  to 
catch  the  ladders  as  I  passed  by,  which  I  did.  I 
hallowed,  "Steady  the  ladders."  The  man  below 
tried  to  save  me,  but  he  was  too  light;  I  think 
it  would  have  taken  a  ton  weight  to  keep  those 
ladders  against  the  house.    The  ladders  turned 


166      TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

over  with  me;  my  weight,  the  coming  of  my 
body,  going  down  at  such  speed,  carried  the 
ladders  with  me.  As  1  fell  I  held  to  the  ladders 
like  ^^a  drowning  man  will  catch  at  a  straw;" 
the  ladders  did  me  a  good  turn,  they  broke  the 
force  of  my  fall.  I  landed  about  twenty-five 
or  thirty  feet  from  the  house  on  soft  ground. 
I  held  on  to  the  ladders  until  I  was  near  the 
ground  and  then  threw  them  off  from  me.  I 
landed  on  my  feet,  but  I  was  doubled  up  so 
quickly  that  it  hurt  my  back,  and  my  left  knee 
went  up  against  my  upper  teeth;  it  almost 
knocked  my  teeth  out.  It  loosened  them  and 
the  upper  teeth  made  such  a  bruise  on  my 
knee  that  an  abscess  was  formed  there  which 
left  a  scar  to  this  day. 

Another  accident  that  happened  to  me  in 
South  Carolina  was  when  I  fell  down  a  man's 
chimney. 

It  was  an  old  fashioned  house,  either  built 
for  a  road  house  or  a  school.  It  was  two  stor- 
ies and  a  half  high,  the  chimneys  being  at  the 
ends  of  the  house  and  outside;  they  were  very 
tall  and  there  were  two  at  each  end;  the  cone 
or  apex  of  the  house  was  between  the  two 
chimneys;  each  chimney  was  about  eight  feet 
from  the  side  of  this  cone.  My  ladders  w^ere 
too  short  to  enable  me  to  put  in  the  top  fas- 
tening, which  was  put  in  six  to  ten  brick  from 
the  top.    To  nail  some  pieces  to  my  ladders  at 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  167 

the  bottom  was  one  way  to  do  it,  and  is  the 
way  that  I  should  have  done;  but  I  was  in  a 
hurry,  and  did  not  want  ^  to  take  any  chances 
of  splitting  my  ladders  by  putting  in  and  tak- 
ing out  the  nails. 

So  I  did  the  work  another  way,  or  tried  to 
do  it,  and  in  doing  so,  came  very  near  going 
all  the  w^ay  down  that  chimney,  or  becoming 
jammed  in  it,  as  I  went  down.  I  put  my  lad- 
ders up  to  and  on  the  eaves,  the  lowest  part  of 
the  roof,  this  enabled  me  to  get  on  the  roof. 
With  my  rubber  shoes  on  my  feet  and  carry- 
ing a  piece  of  rope  with  me,  I  worked  my  way 
to  the  cone,  which  I  straddled.  Then,  throw- 
ing one  end  of  my  rope  to  the  man  who  had 
followed  me  to  the  eaves,  bringing  with  him 
the  third  and  smallest  section  of  my  ladders, 
at  my  direction  he  tied  his  end  of  the  rope  to 
the  ladder  and  pushed  it  up  toward  me.  With 
this  ladder  I  could,  when  in  the  right  position, 
reach  each  of  the  chimney's  top.  I  was  figur- 
ing that  each  chimney  was  a  firm,  well-built 
chimney.  This  was  my  mistake.  Instead  of 
being  firm,  they  were  very  rickety,  and  I  not- 
iced that  the  chimney  shook  when  I  put  the 
ladder  across  to  the  first  top.  This  should 
have  been  a  warning  to  me,  but  I  was  fearless 
and  short  on  judgment.  So  after  fastening  the 
end  of  the  ladder  on  the  house  first,  by  screw- 
ing in  some  fastenings  and  tieing  the  ladder 


168       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

to  them  with  inarlin,  then  I  got  on  the  lad- 
der on  my  stomach  and  pulled  myself  over  to- 
ward the  chimney.  It  w^as  a  hazardous  under- 
taking. At  last  I  got  to  the  shaking  chimney. 
I  could  not  reach  the  point  where  I  wanted  to 
put  in  the  top  fastening,  so  I  had  to  leave  the 
ladder  and  straddle  the  partition  in  the  chim- 
ney. It  was  also  shaky.  I  took  my  long  fas- 
tening out  of  my  pocket  and  my  hatchet  out  of 
my  belt  and  reached  over  as  far  as  I  could  and 
commenced  to  drive  in  the  fastening,  the 
mortar  was  soft,  rotten,  and  the  fastening 
went  in  too  easy.  Either  the  end  of  the  fas- 
tening w^ent  in  against  one  of  the  bricks  in 
the  partition  and  knocked  it  out,  letting  the 
others  fall,  or  it  was  my  weight  on  them  and 
the  swaying  motion  of  my  arm  and  body  dis- 
lodged some  brick  that  was  an  arch  for  the 
others.  I  don't  know  what,  but  I  felt  the 
bricks  tumbling  under  me  and  I  was  going 
down  the  chimney.  One  end  of  my  ladder  pro- 
jected far  enough  over  the  chimney  for  me  to 
grab  it  as  I  went  down;  the  whole  top  of  the 
chimney  was  swaying  but  my  weight  on  the 
ladder  and  the  fastenings  with  the  marlin 
binding  at  the  other  end  of  the  ladder  on  the 
roof,  saved  me  from  a  terrible  fall  and  pos- 
sibly from  death.  I  was  able  to  turn  myself 
around  in  the  chimney  and  get  my  face  to- 
ward the  roof.    I  had  gone  down  with  my  face 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  169 

the  other  way.  By  main  strength  I  drew  my- 
self up  out  of  the  chimney  and  onto  the  lad- 
der, lying  flat  on  my  stomach.  Then  I  pulled 
myself  along  in  the  same  way  that  I  had  gone 
to  the  chimney,  back  to  safety  and  to  better 
sense. 

I  took  my  ladder  down  on  the  ground  and 
went  to  the  woods  and  cut  two  small  trees 
as  large  as  my  leg  and  with  these  lengthened 
out  my  ladders  and  finished  my  job. 


170      TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 


BACK  TO  SEE  MY  LADY  LOVE. 

I  finished  up  in  South  Carolina  and  started 
for  Charlotte,  North  Carolina.  It  was  Novem- 
ber and  the  weather  was  beautiful.  I  did  not 
try  to  do  much  work  on  the  way.  I  would 
make  thirty-five  to  fifty  miles  per  day.  I  had 
about  recovered  from  my  hurt  in  the  runaway. 
The  chimney  incident  happened  nearly  a  year 
before  this.  At  last  I  arrived  in  Charlotte.  I 
put  my  horses  in  the  livery  stable,  gave  my  man 
a  five  dollar  bill  and  told  him  I  would  be  gone 
one  week.  When  the  train  pulled  out  that 
night,  for  Greensboro  and  Raleigh,  I  was  on 
board,  going  to  see  the  darling  of  my  heart, 
to  learn  what  was  to  be  my  fate. 

I  had  been  w^orking  on  a  commission  for 
nearly  a  year.  I  got  thirty-three  and  one- 
third  per  cent  and  paid  my  own  expenses.  My 
earnings  were  all  in  notes  and  must  be  col- 
lected. I  did  not  know  that  such  notes  were 
hard  to  collect,  that  a  man  would  pay  for  ev- 
erything else  that  he  owed  before  he  would  pay 
for  lightning  rods.  I  had  figured  that  I  would 
have  four  thousand  dollars  for  my  year's  work. 
So  I  felt  rich,  even  though  I  did  not  have 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  171 

the  money.  It  was  with  a  light  heart  that  I 
was  going  to  see  Miss  Bettie  Lee,  this  is  what 
her  friends  called,  but  her  name  was  Laura 
Elizabeth  Lee. 

I  had  gone  away  with  a  heavy  heart  in 
August,  1871,  and  this  was  November,  1872, 
just  fifteen  months  later,  and  here  I  was  com- 
ing back  with  fine  clothes  on  my  back,  nice 
shoes  on  my  feet,  a  stylish  hat  on  my  head, 
and  money  in  my  pocket,  and  a  little  over  four 
thousand  dollars  in  notes  to  collect. 

I  felt  fine  as  a  fiddle,  was  in  good  health  and 
had  nerve  enough  to  steal  my  sweetheart  like 
Lochinvar  in  the  poem  if  I  could  not  get  her  in 
any  other  way.  I  did  not  know  what  I  had  to 
contend  against  before  I  could  ever  call  this 
darling  my  own,  but  not  knowing  this  side  of 
the  story,  it  gave  me  no  pain  on  this  journey. 

I  landed  in  Clayton  on  Saturday  morning. 
I  w^ent  to  my  sister's,  Mrs.  Harrell,  to  clean 
up.  Here  is  where  I  got  my  first  bump,  which 
made  a  lump  come  in  my  throat.  I  do  not 
know  whether  I  got  angry  or  sad.  Here  is 
what  I  heard.  My  sweetheart  had  a  real  beau 
and  it  was  reported  that  there  would  be  a 
marriage  soon. 

This  made  me  real  sick  at  heart.  It  gave 
me  so  much  pain  that  I  almost  got  angry  with 
those  of  my  own  kin  that  told  me.  They  said 
it  was  Mr.  Kichard  or  Dick  Graham,  who  had 


172       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

shoved  me  aside,  that  my  sweetheart  never 
even  thought  of  me  again.  This  hurt  me  in 
a  new  place.  Then  I  thought  of  these  months 
of  hardships,  of  all  that  I  had  gone  through  to 
get  money,  the  lack  of  which  Had  banished 
me  from  her  sight,  then  I  said,  "Here  I  come 
back  with  some  money  in  my  pocket  and  my 
queen,  my  angel,  had  forgotten  me  and  found 
another  lover.  Fickle  woman;  how  can  I  trust 
thee." 

Then  I  said,  "As  she  is  not  married  yet,  J 
will  not  believe  one  word  against  her  until  I 
see  her  and  she  tells  me  so  with  her  own  lips." 

I  went  straight  to  her  house.  She  was  vis- 
iting a  neighbor.  Where?  No  one  knew. 
When  would  she  be  home?  No  one  knew.  T 
saw  that  my  arrival  was  known  and  an  effort 
being  made  to  keep  her  out  of  my  way.  I  went 
into  a  store  next  to  her  home — a  Mr.  Bryant's 
— and  asked  him  if  he  knew  where  Miss  Bettie 
Lee  w^as.  He  said  he  did  not,  but  thought  that 
she  went  down  toward  Mr.  Home's  store.  I 
waited  in  the  store  and  when  Mr.  Bryant  was 
at  leisure,  I  told  him  that  I  had  come  all  the 
way  from  Charlotte  to  see  Miss  Bettie,  and  I 
was  determined  to  see  her.  I  told  him  that  I 
loved  her,  and  had  made  money  enough  to  take 
care  of  her,  and  that  I  intended  to  marry  her 
if  she  would  have  me. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  173 

He  said,  ^'I  don't  blame  you,  but  they  say 
that  she  and  Dick  Graham  will  be  married 
soon." 

Here  was  the  same  miserable  news  again; 
was  it  true?  Near  12  o'clock  I  saw  her  coming 
home  with  Miss  Bettie  Cox.  She  came  out 
of  her  sister's  home.  I  watched  her  all  the 
way  down  the  distance.  I  had  been  waiting 
for  two  hours  to  see  her;  these  two  hours  were 
lost  to  me  forever,  and  now,  here  she  was 
coming  along  just  like  she  did  not  know  and 
did  not  care  whether  I  was  in  town  or  out  of 
town.     Did  she  care? 

I  noted  that  she  had  grown;  she  was  taller, 
and  had  picked  up  some  flesh;  but  she  had  on 
one  of  those  old  fly  bonnets.  How  I  hated  the 
ugly  things!  It  shut  out  my  view;  I  could  only 
see  a  part  of  her  face,  her  chin,  but  it  was 
beautiful.  When  she  was  opposite  the  store, 
I  walked  out  in  front  of  her —  a  rude  thing  to 
do — ^I  extended  my  hand  without  saying  a 
word.    She  said,  "Why  it  is  Mr.  Battle!" 

I  said,  "I  have  come  a  long  way  to  see  you. 
I  did  not  know  where  you  were,  no  one  would 
tell  me,  so  I  waited  here  in  this  store." 

She  seemed  pleased,  and  in  pain,  too;  what 
did  it  mean?  Were  the  reports  true?  The  re- 
port which  said  that  she  was  to  marry  Mr. 
Dick  Graham.  I  could  not  ask  her.  I  must 
wait  and  let  her  tell  me. 


174       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

She  asked  me  to  ^'come  in"  and  had  a  look  of 
pain  in  her  face,  which  said,  "I  hope  you  will 
not/' 

This  is  the  way  that  I  read  it,  and  I  read  it 
right.  I  thanked  her  and  said  it  was  dinner 
time  and  I  would  not  detain  her.  I  saw  a 
sweet,  grateful  smile  come  over  her  face,  which 
told  me  that  I  had  rightly  decided  the  matter. 

I  asked  her  if  I  could  go  with  her  to  church 
on  the  morrow,  and  she  said,  ^'I  am  sorry, 
but  I  have  another  engagement." 

I  asked  her  if  I  could  see  her  in  the  after- 
noon. She  said  she  was  sorry  again,  but  she 
was  going  into  the  country  with  her  sister. 

Then  I  asked  her  if  I  could  see  her  in  the 
evening.  She  said,  "Yes,  if  you  can  enjoy  my 
other  company."  I  felt  like  saying,  ''Darn 
your  other  company;"  but  I  smiled  with  a  woe- 
begone look,  and  said  I  would  be  delighted  to 
see  her  other  company.  All  this  conversa- 
tion was  in  the  presence  of  Miss  Bettie  Cox. 
I  had  forgotten  she  was  present,  but  Miss  Lee 
had  not.  I  parted  with  her  for  the  present, 
and  it  seemed  as  if  I  were  parting  with  her 
forever. 

My  conceit  was  being  taken  out  of  me  with 
lightning-like  rapidity.  Everything  did  not 
look  so  rosy  or  promising.  My  little  worldly 
success,  which  seemed  so  important  to  me  a 
day  or    so  ago,  now    seemed    to  be    insignifi- 


AND  S0M:E  stories  of  my  life.  175 

cant,  for  I  wanted  wealth  for  this  beautiful 
girl;  for  her  alone.  Without  her  the  money  that 
I  had  worked  so  hard  to  get  seemed  to  be  worth- 
less. What  did  I  want  with  a  home  or  money 
or  line  clothes  if  I  could  not  please  and  at- 
tract this,  my  first  Empress? 

With  such  thoughts  as  these  I  left  her,  and 
went  back  to  my  sister's. 

They  must  have  discovered  my  disappoint- 
ment, for  my  sister  said,  "Don't  let  it  worry 
you,  for  if  she  loves  you,  nobody  can  keep  her 
from  marrying  you,  and  if  she  does  not  love 
you,  but  loves  somebody  else,  even  if  she  mar- 
ried you,  you  would  not  be  happy,  and  I  know 
that  you  would  not  want  to  marry  her  if  you 
thought  she  would  be  unhappy  with  you." 

These  remarks  opened  up  to  me  the  fact  that 
there  were  two  lives  vitally  involved  in  a  mar- 
riage and  besides  the  two  parties  there  were 
a  host  of  others,  on  both  sides,  the  relatives, 
the  friends  and  acquaintances  and  religious 
affiiliations  to  be  pleased  or  displeased  in  the 
match,  all  of  which  plays  an  important  part 
in  the  happiness  of  two  lives  who  are  about  to 
be  joined  together.  How  important,  I  am 
afraid  the  immature  judgment  of  young  people 
contemplating  matrimony  are  incapable  of  ap- 
preciating. 

A  love  match,  guided  by  mature  judgment, 
has  firmer  foundations  than  a  match  made  on 


176       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

love  and  passion  alone,  for  passion  satiated 
and  love  disgusted,  means  a  wrecked  home. 
Judgment  protects  the  man  and  woman  against 
the  influences  of  outside  gossip,  it  keeps  the 
evil  of  the  outside  on  the  outside,  and  it  deals 
with  the  evil  on  the  inside  with  a  passionless 
appreciation  of  peace,  which  keeps  the  peace. 
It  knows  w^hat  consideration  and  forbearance 
mean,  and  uses  both  in  a  useful  way  to  pre- 
serve the  peace,  happiness  and  serenity  of  the 
home. 

Poverty  is  a  great  enemy  to  the  human  fam- 
ily, in  the  suffering  it  produces,  in  the  disap- 
pointment attending  it,  but  when  judgment 
takes  hold  of  it,  poverty  loses  its  power,  for 
judgment  says  that  poverty  usually  comes 
from  laziness,  and  laziness  can  be  destroyed 
by  work;  work  brings  the  fruits  of  labor,  and 
the  fruits  of  labor  means  thrift,  and  where 
there  is  thrift,  there  is  no  poverty. 

Again,  the  difference  of  faith  and  religion 
is  a  great  source  of  worry  and  trouble  in  the 
family,  especially  w^here  there  are  children.  If 
both  parents  are  strong  in  their  different  faiths 
trouble  is  more  sure  to  come  than  if  one  is  in- 
different about  religious  matters. 

The  liberal-minded  one  can  bear  with  the 
bigoted  one,  but  the  bigoted  one  is  always  in- 
tolerant toward  the  liberal  one. 

Again,  parents  and  relatives  are  responsible 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  177 

for  many  of  the  family  rows  among  young  mar- 
ried people,  by  giving  bad  advice  to  them. 
Here,  again,  is  where  judgment  comes  in  to 
^^pour  oil  on  the  troubled  waters." 

Judgment  grows  like  an  education,  not  by 
itself,  it  must  be  cultivated  and  this  cultiva- 
tion requires  time,  effort  and  perseverance. 

So  judgment  is  not  so  common  with  the 
young  men  and  women  as  with  the  older  men 
and  women;  hence  it  is  a  greater  obligation 
on  the  older  men  and  women  to  give  good  ad- 
vice than  on  the  younger  ones,  for  they  have 
more  judgment,  better  matured. 

These  thoughts  passed  through  my  mind  in 
a  vague  way,  but  they  were  only  thoughts,  and 
they  settled  nothing  regarding  my  future. 

That  night  I  went  again  to  see  the  young 
lady  that  I  loved.  When  I  got  there  I 
heard  voices  and  laughter  within.  I  knocked 
on  the  door  and  Miss  Bettie  came  to  the  door 
to  let  me  in.  There  was  no  light  in  the  hall, 
but  the  parlor  door  was  open  and  a  flood  of 
light  wrapped  my  darling  in  its  folds.  She  was 
dressed  in  white  and  her  beautiful  hair  was 
parted  in  the  middle  and  brushed  back;  a 
crown  of  rich  brown  as  a  background  for  this 
angelic  face.  I  never  saw  her  look  more  beau- 
tiful; there  was  a  flush  on  her  face,  more  like 
a  blush  than  rosy  cheeks. 


178      TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

I  extended  to  her  my  hand,  which  she  took. 
I  gave  her  hand  a  gentle  pressure,  had  I 
squeezed  her  hand  as  I  loved  her,  her  hand 
would  have  been  lame  for  a  long  time  to  come. 

I  believed  I  detected  a  slight  pressure  as 
a  return,  but  at  that  time  I  was  not  certain. 
She  looked  pleased  and  this  was  consoling  at 
any  rate.  She  took  me  in  the  parlor  and  in- 
troduced me  to  all  of  her  friends,  among  oth- 
ers, my  rival  and  enemy,  as  I  considered  him 
at  that  time,  Mr.  Richard  Graham.  I  had  to 
confess  to  myself  that  he  was  better  looking 
than  I  was,  and  he  had  a  very  fine  shaped  head 
and  was  dressed  equally  as  well  as  I  was 
— I  had  thought  that  I  was  fixed  up 
about  as  nicely  as  a  moderate  expenditure  of 
money  could  provide.  I  noted  that  all  became 
very  quiet  after  I  had  entered  the  room.  The 
buzz  of  voices  and  the  laughter  ceased.  So  my 
arrival  did  make  a  difference.  How  much  dif- 
ference it  made  at  that  time  I  was  not  suf- 
ficently  developed  in  perception  to  discover. 

I  felt  too  serious  to  entertain  that  company, 
and  I  remembered  the  report  made  to  me  about 
the  reputation  I  had  for  being  wild.  So  I  sat 
still  like  the  balance  for  about  an  hour,  then 
excused  myself  and  left.  It  was  not  yet  9 
o'clock.  During  the  days  that  I  used  to  go 
calling  on  young  ladies,  I  made  it  a  rule  to  go 
home  at  9  o'clock.  I  heard  a  father  say  one  night 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OP  MY  LIFE.  179 

when  a  young  man  went  home  after  11  o'clock 
p.  m.,  "that  he  did  not  have  enough  sense  to 
go  home/'  This  expression  made  such  an  im- 
pression on  me  that  I  made  up  my  mind  not 
to  give  any  father  or  mother  the  occasion  to 
say  that  about  me. 

I  have  seen  many  persons  since  who  filled 
the  bill  exactly,  for  they  did  not  have  sense 
enough  to  go  home. 

I  learned  that  Mrs.  Lee  said,  "Well,  he  has 
sense  enough  to  know  when  to  go  home." 

Old  people  object  very  seriously  to  being 
kept  up  later  than  their  usual  bed  time;  for 
I  know  by  experience  that  to  conform  to  our 
regular  habits  makes  us  more  comfortable  and 
adds  to  our  ability  to  perform  and  perfect  our 
alloted  tasks. 

I  did  not  sleep  well  that  night,  for  I  knew 
that  my  sweetheart  was  going  to  church  with 
the  other  man,  a  better  looking  man,  a  man  of 
good  family,  who  owned  land  in  the  edge  of 
town  and  had  the  most  conspicuous  residence 
in  or  near  the  town. 

He  owned  a  nice  horse  and  a  new  buggy, 
which  he  had  doubtless  bought  in  prospect  of 
his  approaching  wedding. 

Here  I  was  with  no  horse  and  buggy  and  had 
to  walk,  and  if  my  sweetheart  had  accepted  my 
invitation  to  go  to  church,  she  would  have  had 


180      TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

to  walk  also.  I  did  not  blame  her,  I  said  in 
my  misery,  ^*Go  on,  ride;  I  would  ride  too; 
you  are  right,  ride  with  the  man  who  can  fur- 
nish the  conveyance;  go  to  church  with  a  man 
who  can  take  you  there  like  a  lady.  Don't  fool 
away  your  time  with  a  man  who  has  to  walk, 
when  there  is  one  who  is  ready  to  take  you 
around  in  a  buggy  or  carriage." 

The  next  morning,  Sunday  morning,  my 
dream  came  true,  for  I  was  trudging  along, 
w^alking  to  the  church.  The  road  was  dusty, 
the  day  w^as  warm;  I  was  mopping  my  brow 
and  cursing  my  luck.  My  shoes  were  covered 
with  dust,  my  nice  black  pants  were  grey  half 
way  to  my  knees  with  the  dust.  Just  then  I 
looked  back  dow^n  the  road  and  there  was  Mr. 
Graham  and  mv  sweetheart  ridino*  alono*  so 
cool  and  comfortable,  overtaking  me  and  in  a 
minute  more  would  pass  me  going  to  church. 
I  saw  myself,  a  poor  devil,  walking  the  road 
in  dust,  and  sweat,  making  such  a  poor  appear- 
ance in  comparison  with  this  elegant  young 
man  with  his  fine  horse  and  new  buggy.  T 
said  to  myself,  "Yes,  it  is  best,  for  all  her  peo- 
ple live  here,  and  the  young  man  lives  here, 
they  are  all  friends,  and  have  known  each 
other  since  childhood,  and  I  am  the  stranger, 
I  am  the  interloper.  I  am  the  man  who  comes 
in  and  wants  something  that  the  whole  town 
seemed  determined  that  I  should  not  have;  but 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  181 

what  if  the  lady  did  not  love  the  other  man, 
and  did  love  me?" 

That  v^^ould  be  different.  The  lady  could  not 
ask  me  to  marry  her,  I  must  do  the  asking. 
This  settled  the  matter.  I  made  up  my  mind 
then,  come  what  may,  I  would  know  my  fate 
before  I  left  town,  but  how  could  I  get  a 
chance  to  see  her.  This  seemed  to  be  an  im- 
possibility, but  I  could  try. 

I  did  try,  but  no  use.  At  the  church  I  did 
like  the  rest.  I  went  into  the  church.  The 
ladies  all  went  on  the  left  side,  and  the  men 
on  the  right.  It  did  not  take  me  long  to  find 
Miss  Bettie,  but  she  was  busy  with  her  hymn 
book  and  did  not  turn  her  head.  When  recess 
came  she  got  up  and  went  out.  Mr.  Graham 
also  got  up  and  went  out,  and  soon  I  got  up 
and  went  out.  I  looked  down  toward  Mr.  Gra- 
ham's buggy  and  there  they  were  sitting  in 
the  buggy.  He  did  not  leave  her  during  the 
day  except  when  he  was  in  the  church. 

I  intended  to  leave  on  Monday,  going  to  Wil- 
son to  see  my  mother  and  sister  withiher  fam- 
ily. I  must  speak  to  her  that  I  loved,  today, 
but  how?  There  was  no  chance,  I  made  one. 
I  walked  up  to  the  buggy,  pulled  off  my  hat, 
and  said,  "Miss  Bettie,  you  have  so  many'  en- 
gagements  since  I  have  been  here  that  I  have 
been  unable  to  see  you.  I  must  leave  here 
tomorrow.    I  am  going  down  to  Wilson  to  see 


182       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

my  mother.  I  have  not  seen  her  for  fifteen 
months.  I  stopped  oft'  here  to  see  you  first, 
but  have  seen  much  less  of  you  than  I  had 
hoped;  please  don't  get  married  before  I  see 
you  again,  for  I  have  something  to  tell  you.'' 

I  saw  a  snap  in  her  big,  brown  eyes  that  told 
me  that  she  would  wait,  but  she  said,  "I  have 
no  idea  of  getting  married.'' 

I  looked  at  Mr.  Graham,  and  he  had  a  sickly 
smile  on  his  face,  which  showed  to  me  the  vacil- 
lating, good,  easy,  don't  care,  indifferent  dispo- 
sition and  character  that  gave  me  new  hope. 

After  this,  I  said,  ^'That  man  would  not 
make  a  good  husband,  he  is  too  indifferent 
about  everything.  He  lacks  energy,  he  lacks 
enterprise.  He  is  too  slow  to  love  real  hard, 
and  what  is  more,  he  shall  not  marry  Miss 
Bettie  Lee  if  I  can  prevent  it." 

I  went  my  way.  I  had  much  to  do  and  T 
went  on  and  did  it,  leaving  my  rival  a  free  field 
to  win  if  he  was  able  to  do  so.  I  had  been 
back  several  times  during  the  winter  but  had 
no  better  success  in  seeing  the  one  I  loved  so 
well. 

I  cam.e  again  in  March,  1873,  and  went  to  her 
home  to  see  her.  I  went  in  the  morning.  She 
and  her  mother  were  both  at  work  sewing. 
Mrs.  Lee  was  basting  and  Miss  Bettie  was 
sewing  on  the  machine. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  183 

I  was  hoping  that  Mrs.  Lee  would  go  out 
for  something.  I  waited  about  an  hour,  but 
still  she  kept  her  seat.  At  last  I  pulled  out 
an  envelope  and  wrote  these  words,  "You  know 
that  I  love  you,  will  you  be  my  wife?''  and 
pushed  the  envelope  and  pencil  before  her 
on  the  machine.  The  machine  did  not  stop 
running,  the  buzz  went  on.  I  glanced  over  to- 
ward Mrs.  Lee,  her  head,  with  bonnet  on, 
was  over  her  work.  Miss  Bettie  wrote  un- 
derneath my  writing,  "What  shall  I  say?"  I 
wrote  under  this,  "Say  yes."  She  wrote  again, 
under  this,  just  one  word,  "Yes." 

I  turned  around  and  said  to  Mrs.  Lee,  "You 
have  doubtless  noticed  me  coming  to  your 
house.  I  love  your  daughter.  She  loves  me; 
we  want  to  be  married  and  I  ask  your  con- 
sent." She  said,  "You  are  a  stranger  to  me, 
and  I  do  not  want  to  give  my  daughter  to  any 
body.  If  she  finds  somebody  that  she  loves 
better  than  she  loves  me,  she  can  make  her 
choice;  as  she  makes  her  bed  so  she  must  lie 
on  it." 

I  told  her  that  Miss  Bettie,  if  she  married 
me,  would  have  a  soft  bed  to  lie  on;  that  my 
mother  had  five  feather  beds  to  give  me. 

She  said,  "Something  else  was  needed  beside 
feather  beds." 

She  said  further  that  "A  young  man  sees  a 
pretty  girl  and  wants  to  marry  her,  but  after 


184       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

he  is  married,  he  learns  that  there  are  many 
other  things  that  he  needed  much  worse  than 
he  did  a  wife,''  and  this  remark  I  have  found 
to  be  true. 

I  told  her  that  we  were  in  no  hurry  to  get 
married,  that  I  already  had  enough  to  take 
care  of  a  wife  and  she  could  make  inquries 
about  me,  and  if  the  people  she  inquired  of 
told  the  truth  she  would  find  nothing  against 
me.  I  told  her  my  record  was  clean;  the  worst 
that  had  ever  been  told  on  me  was  that  I  was 
wild.  I  said  this  wildness  consisted  in  my  go- 
ing out  with  other  musicians  serenading,  the 
girls  at  night,  that  I  had  done  that  six  or 
eight  times  in  my  whole  life.  "I  also  play  the 
banjo  and  sing,  I  play  the  violin  and  mando- 
lin and  guitar.  I  also  played  accompaniments 
on  the  piano  to  my  songs.  I  do  not  drink  in- 
toxicating liquors,  and  I  have  no  bad  habits, 
I  have  been  baptized  into  the  Christian  Church 
and  am  fond  of  the  Church  and  Sunday  School. 
I  feel  at  home  in  any  church,  for  my  kinfolks 
belong  to   almost  every  denomination." 

She  said,  "If  you  are  as  good  as  that,  you 
are  good  enough  for  any  woman." 

So,  with  no  serious  objection  to  our  engage- 
ment, I  left  the  house  with  the  promise  that 
the  girl  who  was  all  the  world  to  me,  was  to 
be  my  wife. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  185 

Oh,  ecstasy!  how  sweet  thou  art!  I  was  rais- 
ed from  the  bottomless  pit  of  despondency  to 
the  highest  heaven! 

I  walked  out  of  that  yard,  stepping  as  lightly 
as  a  show  horse. 

Old  Mr.  McCullers  saw  me  passing  his  store, 
and  something  in  my  light,  saucy  air  attracted 
his  attention,  and  he  yelled  at  me,  and  said, 
^'Come  back  here  a  minute,  I  want  to  talk  to 
you."  I  stopped  and  w^ent  up  to  him  and  said, 
"What  is  it?"  He  asked,  "How  are  you  get- 
ting  on?"  I  said,  "It  is  all  right."  "Have  you 
got  it  all  fixed  up?"  I  said,  "Almost."  "When 
is  it  going  to  be?"  I  said,  "I  think  about  the 
middle  of  next  October."  He  said,  "That  is 
all  right,  you  have  done  pretty  well." 

I  went  to  see  my  loved  one  that  evening, 
and  had  her  all  to  myself  for  the  first  time. 
What  a  delightful  evening!  Why  do  not  all 
men  love  their  wives  as  well  and  treat  them  as 
sweethearts  as  long  as  they  live?  They  would 
get  so  much  happiness  out  of  life  if  they  only 
would.  For  thirty-eight  years  I  have  had  a 
sweetheart.  I  never  left  her  in  all  these  years 
to  go  to  some  other  place  for  entertainment. 
I  always  took  her  with  me.  If  the  entertain- 
ment was  not  good  enough  for  my  wife,  neither 
was  it  good  enough  for  me. 

I  left  early  the  next  morning,  going  to  Wil- 
son.    I  remained  only  two  days.     I  found  all 


186      TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

well,  my  mother  was  delighted  to  see  me,  as 
was  my  sister.  When  I  told  them  that  I  would 
be  married  in  the  fall,  they  wanted  to  know  all 
about  it,  and  I  told  them  all  that  there  was 
to  tell. 

I  stopped  over  in  Clayton  one  day  as  it  was 
on  my  way  to  Charlotte,  just  for  one  more 
taste  of  heaven  before  I  went  back  to  work. 
I  had  written  to  my  betrothed  that  I  would 
spend  the  next  day  with  her.  When  I  arrived 
she  met  me  at  the  door,  and  what  a  happy, 
sweet  smile  was  on  her  face.  She  took  me  into 
the  parlor,  saying  that  her  mother  went  down 
to  the  store,  but  would  be  back  after  a  while. 
W^e  spent  the  whole  day  with  each  other,  get- 
ting acquainted.  I  took  dinner  with  her.  She 
and  I  alone,  with  old  Aunt  Palace  waiting  on 
us.  Mrs.  Lee  did  not  come  back,  taking  din- 
ner with  her  other  daughter,  Mrs.  Home. 
This  simple  little  dinner,  out  in  the  kitchen, 
out  in  another  house  in  the  yard,  as  are  many 
of  the  kitchens  in  the  south,  was  one  of  the 
happiest  events  in  my  life.  There  sat  in  front 
of  me  the  one  being  in  all  the  world  that  I 
loved  most.  So  quiet  and  matter  of  fact.  We 
were  almost  strangers,  for  we  had  seen  so 
little  of  each  other,  we  knew  nothing  of  each 
other  except  what  the  eyes  of  love  revealed. 
Yet  there  we  sat  as  if  we  had  been  married  all 
our  lives,  with  hearts  full  of  love,  and  guided 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  187 

by  an  unfaltering  trust.  Each  could  "read  life's 
meaning  in  the  other's  eyes.''  Here  is  the 
foundation  of  devoted  lives,  here  is  the  source 
of  all  earthly  happiness,  and  it  may  be  found 
lapping  over  into  eternity.  There  is  nothing 
more  lasting  than  love,  and  nothing  more  beau- 
tiful  than  trust.  These  two  give  the  other 
one  blessed  member  of  the  heavenly  trinity. 
For  there  we  have,  "Faith,  Hope  and  Charity." 
Our  souls  were  in  the  "seventh  heaven,"  but 
our  conversation  was  about  a  home  we  would 
build,  about  how  we  would  furnish  it  and  how 
much  we  would  spend  for  living  expenses.  I 
smile  now  to  think  how  innocent  we  were  then; 
for  in  our  simplicity  we  figured  out  that  we 
could  live  gn  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
dollars  per  year.  If  we  had  done  this  all  our 
thirty-eight  years  of  married  life  we  would 
have  saved  in  living  expenses  alone,  the  snug 
little  sum  of  two  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 

The  first  ten  years  of  our  married  life  our 
living  expenses  were  two  hundred  dollars  per 
month,  which  would  make  twenty-four  thou- 
sand. 

For  the  last  twenty-eight  years  our  expenses 
have  averaged  six  hundred  dollars  per  month, 
this  would  be  two  hundred  and  one  thousand 
and  six  hundred  dollars,  adding  the  sum  of  the 
first  ten  years  to  the  sum  of  the  last  twenty- 


188       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

eight  years,  3^ou  will  have  the  grand  total  of 
two  hundred  twenty-live  thousand,  six  hundred 
dollars,  and  if  you  will  deduct  from  this 
amount  the  four  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars,  which  is  one  hundred  and  twen- 
ty-five dollars  per  year  for  the  thirty-eight 
years  that  we  have  been  married,  you  will 
see  how  near  we  two  silly  children  came 
to  calculating  what  our  real  expenses  would 
actually  be.  If  I  could  have  looked  down 
through  the  years  to  come  and  know^n  the 
truth,  and  told  old  Mrs.  Lee  and  her  daugh- 
ter, too,  how  much  money  I  w^ould  make  and 
spend  on  the  daughter,  the  old  lady  would  have 
said  that  I  t\  as  the  biggest  braggart  that  she 
had  even  seen,  and  the  daughter,  would  have 
thought  I  was  crazy  and  probably  have  given 
me  my  walking  papers. 

It  is  just  as  well  that  we  do  not  know  all 
the  good  and  evil  that  is  to  come  to  us,  for  a 
knowledge  of  the  evil  would  take  away  our 
hope  and  a  knowledge  of  the  good  would  take 
away  one  of  the  producers  of  the  good,  namely, 
effort. 

If  I  had  told  my  wife  and  her  mother  that 
one  day  I  would  build  for  my  wife  in  Clay- 
ton, her  own  home,  a  house  to  cost  more  money 
than  any  house  in  town  and  I  would  put  things 
into  it  for    convenience    and     comfort     that 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  189 

neither  of  them  had  ever  seen,  both  of  them 
would  have  told  me  that  I  was  the  wildest 
dreamer  to  be  found,  and  this  is  exactly  what 
I  have  done. 

The  next  day  I  had  to  leave  for  Charlotte, 
and  while  I  hated  awfully  to  go  away  so  far 
from  my  betrothed  wife,  duty  called  and  away 
I  went. 

I  got  my  wagon  and  came  on  east,  intending 
to  work  in  Granville  County  that  summer,  the 
summer  of  1873.  My  plighted  love  spent  most 
of  the  summer  in  Raleigh,  with  her  sister,  get- 
ting ready  with  her  trousseau.  Every  Satur- 
day afternoon  I  would  quit  work,  borrow  a 
saddle  and  ride  one  of  my  horses  thirty,  forty 
or  fifty  miles  just  to  see  that  lovely  face  for  a 
few  hours  on  Sunday.  The  time  passed  quickly 
and  at  last  we  set  the  day  for  our  wedding  on 
October  22nd,  and  were  married. 

I  had  already  commenced  to  build  a  home  in 
Raleigh,  but  I  changed  my  plans  and  sold  the 
house  to  a  Mr.  Pool  and  after  forming  a  co- 
partnership to  go  into  a  different  line  of  busi- 
ness, I  continued  my  lightning  rod  business 
for  a  year  to  give  me  time  to  collect  my  notes 
and  get  together  as  much  money  as  I  could 
to  be  properly  equipped  for  my  new  business. 

I  had  too  many  bumps  and  knocks  in  my 
lightning  rod  experience  and  had  felt  too  keen- 
ly on  several  occasions  the  pangs  of  apprehen- 


190      TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

sion  of  coming  evils  when  my  pockets  were 
empty  of  casli  to  attempt  to  establish  a  new 
business  without  money. 

I  spent  the  winter  of  1874  and  1875  in  col- 
lecting.   I  did  this  on  horseback. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  191 


AN  ACCIDENT  ON  THE  YADKIN  RIVER. 

In  January,  1875,  I  was  on  horseback  collect- 
ing notes  in  Rowan  and  Davidson  Counties, 

N.  a 

It  was  the  policy  of  the  lightning  rod  com 
pany  to  send  a  stranger  to  collect  the  notes, 
instead  of  the  man  who  sold  and  put  up  the 
lightning  rods. 

I  had  nearly  finished  my  work  and  was  going 
east.  I  came  to  the  Yadkin  River  at  Trading- 
ford.  The  ferryman  was  waiting  on  my  side  of 
the  river.  It  was  a  flat  boat,  with  a  railing 
on  the  sides  and  an  extension  gate  at  the  ends. 
The  ferryman  worked  with  a  cable  passing 
through  two  pulleys.  When  all  was  ready, 
with  me  sitting  on  my  horse  in  the  middle  of 
the  boat,  the  man  pushed  the  boat  from  the 
shore  and  with  an  adjustable  pulley,  let  the 
end  of  the  boat  leaving  the  shore  drop  down 
stream,  the  motion  of  the  running  water  car- 
rying the  boat  across  the  river.  I  thought 
this  a  fine  arrangement.  We  got  along  smooth- 
ly for  a  while.  The  ferryman  said  to  me,  "You 
had  better  get  off  that  horse."  I  said  I  did  not 
want  my  saddle  to  get  wet,  as  it  was  rain- 


192       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

ing  and  I  was  well  fixed  for  wet  weather,  as 
I  had  on  rubber  overshoes,  rubber  leggins,  rub- 
ber overcoat  and  a  rubber  cover  for  my  hat. 
I  was  as  comfortable  as  a  ''bug  in  a  rug." 

The  weather  was  cold  and  there  were  thin 
pieces  of  ice  floating  in  the  river.  When  we 
got  further  out  into  the  river,  the  stream  was 
running  swifter,  the  pulley  at  the  front  end  of 
the  boat  as  we  moved  being  burdened  with  an 
extra  friction  and  increased  speed,  commenced 
to  yell  like  the  screams  of  a  lost  soul.  I  never 
heard  a  more  unearthly  noise  in  my  life.  My 
horse  was  more  alarmed  than  I  was,  and  start- 
ed to  turn  around  to  go  back  .  I  gave  her  a 
jerk  on  the  curb  bit  and  must  have  hurt  her 
severely,  for  w^hen  she  found  the  high  gate  be- 
hind her  closed,  she  reared  up  and  deliberately 
turned  to  the  side  railing  and  jumped  over  into 
the  river. 

Both  of  us  went  under  the  water,  for  at  this 
point  the  river  is  deep.  When  we  came  to 
the  surface,  my  horse  struck  out  to  swim  down 
stream.  I  dropped  out  of  the  saddle,  holding 
on  to  the  horn  with  my  left  hand.  I  was  on 
the  right  side  of  my  horse.  I  struck  her  on  the 
head  with  my  right  hand  and  said,  "Get  out  of 
here."  This  turned  her  toward  the  shore, 
where  I  wanted  to  go.  She  was  swimming 
easy.  The  water,  when  it  first  went  through 
my  clothes  to  my  body,  was  so  cold  that  T 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  193 

thought  I  was  freezing,  but  in  a  few  minutes 
my  body  warmed  this  water  some  and  I  felt 
comparatively  comfortable. 

This  same  mare,  Mollie,  was  one  of  the  best 
I  ever  saw.  I  knew  her  well  and  was  con- 
fident that  she  could  take  me  to  the  shore  in 
safety. 

I  picked  out  a  place  to  land,  nearly  a  quar- 
ter of  a  mile  below  the  ferry  landing.  I  had 
to  do  this  on  account  of  the  swift  current  in  the 
river. 

We  landed  on  a  sand  bar  and  went  on  to  the 
shore.  My  clothes  were  so  heavy  I  could 
hardly  walk.  I  tied  my  mare  to  a  tree  and  got 
a  switch  and  scraped  all  the  water  off  of  her 
that  I  could  and  then  mounted  and  went  on 
up  through  a  field  to  the  road. 

I  looked  back  and  there  was  the  ferryman 
still  in  the  middle  of  the  river.  I  galloped  on 
for  a  mile  or  two  and  stopped  at  the  first  house 
I  came  to  and  asked  for  help.  I  told  my 
story,  showed  my  wet  clothes  and  made  my- 
self known  as  a  Free  Mason,  something  that 
I  had  never  done  before.  The  gentleman  was 
named  Goodwood,  and  was  a  Mason.  He  said, 
"Come  right  in  and  we  will  fix  you  up  in  a 
few  minutes.  He  brought  me  some  towels  and 
some  of  his  own  clothes,  and  as  there  was  only 
one  fire  in  his  house  and  one  in  his  kitchen, 
he  asked  his  wife  and  daughters  to  go  to  the 


194      TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

kitchen  till  I  could  get  dressed.  I  did  not  take 
long.  He  was  a  big  man  and  I  was  a  small 
one,  but  his  clothes  felt  so  good  I  could  not 
complain  about  the  misfit.  I  had  the  same 
job  to  do  over  again  that  I  had  done  nearly 
four  years  before,  to  dry  out  my  money  and 
clean  my  watch. 

I  spent  the  day  with  Mr.  Goodwood,  whose 
name  should  have  been  Mr.  Goodman,  the  lad- 
ies dried  out  my  clothes  for  me  and  I  was  soon 
on  my  way  east  again. 

If  I  had  known  what  a  disastrous  windup 
was  before  me  in  the  lightning  rod  business,  it 
would  have  given  me  palpitation  of  the  heart. 

At  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Lee,  I  formed  a 
co-partnership  with  one  Mr.  John  Bagwell  for 
the  year  1874,  in  the  lightning  rod  business. 
We  had  four  wagons  and  were  to  pay  ten  cents 
per  foot  for  the  rods  and  were  to  turn  over 
all  notes  taken  to  secure  this  ten  cents  out 
of  the  first  collections.  Individually,  I  turned 
over  more  than  ten  thousand  dollars  in  notes, 
but  the  other  three  wagons,  with  John  Bag- 
well on  one  and  his  brothers  on  the  other  two, 
turned  over  less  than  five  thousand  dollars  for 
the  three  wagons.  So  being  partners  with 
John  Bagnell  cost  me  my  whole  year's  work, 
for  it  took  all  my  individual  profit  to  pay  up 
partnership  debts.     Had  I  worked  alone  as  I 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OP  MY  LIFE.  195 

had  been  doing,  my  profits  would  have  been 
over  three  thousand  dollars. 

So   I   came  out  of  the  lightning  rod   busi- 
ness, after  four  years  of  hard  work,  depriva- 
tions and  dangers  with  about  twenty-six  hun 
dred  dollars. 

I  was  ready  to  take  up  a  new  line  of  busi- 
ness. All  the  time  that  I  was  a  lightning  rod 
man,  while  I  was  riding  along  the  road,  I  had 
plenty  of  time  to  think.  Among  other  thoughts 
w^as  the  one  that  led  to  success.  It  was  this: 
I  said  here,  "I  am  going  from  house  to  house 
and  selling  something  that  I  can  never  sell 
again.  I  tell  them  good-bye  and  never  see 
them  again.  I  want  a  business  that  will  en- 
able me  to  sell  to  a  customer  something  that 
he  will  continue  to  use  as  long  as  he  lives." 

If  I  had  such  a  business  and  enough  cus- 
tomers, it  will  be  only  a  few  years  when  I  will 
have  all  the  money  that  I  can  desire.  These 
thoughts  were  the  foundation  of  my  fortune. 

The  next  question  was,  "What  is  to  be  my 
business?" 

A  drummer  from  Baltimore  left  at  the  hotel 
in  Wilson,  Dun's  Commercial  Book  of  Credits 
for  the  South.  I  got  hold  of  this  book  and  com- 
menced to  examine  it,  and  there  I  found  all 
the  business  men's  names  and  opposite  the 
name  would  be  a  "letter  and  a  figure."'  These 
letters  and  figures  referred  to  a  table  on  the 


196      TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

first  page.  The  letter  would  tell  you  what 
the  man  or  partnership  or  corporation  was 
estimated  to  be  worth,  and  the  figure  w^ould 
tell  you  what  the  grade  of  his  credit  was.  Thi?< 
book  was  so  fascinating  to  me  that  I  put  in 
hours  looking  up  various  men  that  I  thought 
I  knew\  Some  of  them,  w^hom  I  thought  to  be 
well  off,  had  no  credit,  and  some  men  that  I 
thought  poor  had  real  good  credit. 

So  I  said,  ^'Money  does  not  give  a  man  cred- 
it, but  it  is  his  willingness  to  pay  and  he  does 
pay  his  debts",  and  this  led  me  to  the  second 
thought  that  a  merchant,  when  he  had  little 
money,  must  not  buy  more  than  he  can  pay 
for,  as  the  paying  gave  him  the  credit  and 
credit  is  founded  on  confidence. 

In  other  w^ords,  it  is  the  upright,  honorable 
and  reliable  business  man  who  has  the  con- 
fidence of  his  creditors  and  this  gives  him  the 
credit. 

I  found  that  '^A.  1"  meant  one  million  dol- 
lars, and  I  found  none  in  North  Carolina. 

I  found  several  banks  in  the  South  worth 
five  hundred  thousand  dollars.  I  found  sev- 
eral lumber  companies  w^orth  over  one  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars.  The  merchants  were 
rated  from  one  thousand  to  fifty  thousand 
dollars,  some  milling  companies  were  worth 
from  ten  to  twenty-five  thousand  dollars,  the 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  197 

railroad  companies  were  rated  higher  than  any 
others. 

I  looked  for  the  wholesale  druggists,  they 
were  rated  high.  I  looked  for  the  manufac- 
turing chemists,  there  were  very  few  in  the 
South  at  that  time.  There  was  one  in  New 
Orleans  with  about  two  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars as  a  capital. 

Out  of  all  of  these  lucrative  lines  of  busi- 
ness, which  one  could  I  embark  in.  I  could 
not  be  a  banker,  for  that  meant  a  lot  of  money, 
which  I  did  not  have.  I  could  not  own  a  rail- 
road for  the  same  reason.  So  I  excluded  all 
of  these  lines  till  I  came  to  the  manufacturing 
chemist,  then  I  said  I  can  be  a  manufacturing 
chemist,  if  I  make  only  one  bottle  of  medi- 
cine. 

Here  is  where  my  four  years'  study  of  medi- 
cine came  in  again.  I  was  not  yet  a  doctor, 
but  I  knew  much  about  medicine. 

I  bought  some  books  on  chemistry  and  phar- 
macy and  started  in  again  to  study  these 
branches  of  medicine.  I  took  a  part  of  the 
money  that  I  had  and  bought  a  drug  store  in 
Wilson,  N.  C,  and  started  in  business  under 
the  name  of  Battle  &  Co.  I  took  my  brother, 
Cullen,  in  business  with  me,  though  he  did  not 
have  any  money,  and  another  gentleman,  who 
shall  be  nameless,  for  business  reasons.  This? 
gentleman  was  a  good  druggist,  as  well  as  be- 


198       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

ing  a  doctor.  He  had  no  money  either.  I  was 
the  only  one  of  the  three  who  had  any  money. 
In  two  year's  experimenting,  we  developed  the 
formulas  of  lodia  and  Bromidia.  The  first  is 
an  alterative  and  tonic  and  the  last  is  an  hyp- 
notic, something  to  make  one  sleep. 

Up  to  the  time  that  w^e  began  to  manufac- 
ture Bromidia,  the  doctors  used  Dover's  Powd- 
ers and  Hydrate  of  Chloral  as  sleeping  por- 
tions, but  after  Bromidia  became  known,  this 
was  the  favorite  remedy  to  produce  sleep. 

We  sold  out  the  drug  store  in  October,  1875, 
and  moved  our  business  to  St.  Louis.  We  rent 
ed  two  rooms  over  a  bar-room  at  100  South 
Main  street.  We  remained  at  100  South  Main 
street  for  two  years,  and  being  cramped  for 
room  and  having  no  elevator,  we  leased  No. 
116  Olive  street  for  three  years. 

At  the  expiration  of  our  lease,  our  quarters 
were  too  small  to  accommodate  our  business. 
We  next  located  at  402  North  Main  street,  and 
remained  at  this  place  until  1887,  when  we 
moved  to  our  own  building,  which  we  had  just 
put  up  at  2001  Locust  street,  where  we  are  at 
present  (1911)  located. 

In  May,  1876,  Mr.  S.  S.  Blackwell,  of  New 
York  City,  who  had  been  in  business  in  Wil- 
son, N.  C,  and  who  married  for  his  second  wife 
an  old  school  mate  of  mine.  Miss  Josephine 
Blount,  of  Wilson,  N.  C,  came  west  looking 


AND  SOME  STORIKS  OF  MY  LIFE.  199 

for  an  opening  to  go  into  business.  He  had 
some  money,  We  needed  him  and  his  money, 
so  we  took  him  in  as  a  partner  with  one-fourth 
interest,  in  our  business.  In  1880  we  bought 
out  the  nameless  gentleman's  interest  in  our 
business.  In  1883  we  made  a  corporation  of 
our  company,  calling  it  by  the  name  of  Bat^ 
tie  &  Co.,  Chemists  Corporation. 


200        TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 


THE  CANVASSER. 

Mj  brother,  Cullen,  and  I  started  to  Chi- 
cago on  the  19th  of  January,  1876.  I  had 
just  come  from  North  Carolina  where  the  cli- 
mate is  mild  and  pleasant.  I  Had  never  owned 
an  overcoat,  I  did  not  need  it,  and  to  land  in  a 
country  where  the  thermometer  registered 
around  zero  was  such  a  change  that  a  man 
much  less  sensitive  than  I  was  would  have 
felt  it  keenly. 

In  getting  ready  to  leave  St.  Louis  for  Chi- 
cago, I  went  down  to  the  various  "scalpers" 
offices  to  see  if  I  could  not  save  some  money  on 
the  trip.  In  those  days  there  were  many  men 
who  would  purchase  the  unused  part  of  a  rail- 
road ticket  for  a  much  lower  price  than  the 
regular  rate,  and  would  sell  it  again  for  a 
price  lower  than  the  regular  rate,  and  still 
have  a  fair  profit  on  the  sale.  These  men  were 
called  "scalpers."  So  all  the  commercial  trav- 
elers were  familiar  with  this  fact  and  availed 
themselves  of  it,  to  save  a  dollar  or  so. 

I,  with  the  other  travelers,  was  perfectly 
w^illing  to  "beat  the  railroads,"  as  it  was  called, 
in  buying  a  "scalper's"  ticket  to  any  point  to 
which  I  wanted  to  go. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  201 

The  regular  price  to  Chicago  was  nine  dol- 
lars for  one  ticket.  I  bought  two  tickets  from 
a  ''scalper/'  Mr.  Ben  Wassermann,  for  seven 
dollars  each.  I  congratulated  myself  that  T 
had  saved  four  dollars. 

My  brother  and  I  went  to  the  depot  that 
night  to  take  our  train  for  Chicago.  I  heard 
a  man  halloo,  "All  aboard  for  Chicago."  I  call- 
ed my  brother,  Cullen,  and  said,  "There  is  our 
train  getting  ready  to  start,  so  we  had  bet- 
ter get  aboard.''  We  went  to  a  train  stand- 
ing in  the  old  depot,  where  there  were  many 
other  trains  getting  ready  to  start.  Some  go- 
ing east,  some  going  west.  They  were  backed 
up  to  a  passageway  from  the  middle  of  the  de- 
pot. I  asked  a  man  in  a  blue  uniform  and 
brass  buttons  w^hich  was  the  Chicago  train; 
he  pointed  to  a  train  headed  east,  on  the  third 
track,  and  said,  "There  is  your  train."  My 
brother  and  I  got  on  the  train  indicated  by  the 
railroad  man,  and  settled  ourselves  for  an  all- 
night  ride.  We  w^ere  in  the  "day  coach."  There 
was  a  "sleeper"  on  that  night,  but  this  would 
cost  us  two  dollars  each,  and  we  would  not 
think  of  giving  ourselves  so  much  comfort  at 
such  a  price. 

Our  train  soon  pulled  out  of  the  depot,  and 
we  passed  over  the  Eads  Bridge  and  also 
through  East  St.  Louis. 

W^e  were  going  at  a  lively  rate  toward  Chi- 


202        TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

cago  and  must  have  been  at  least  ten  miles 
out  from  St.  Louis,  when  I  saw  the  conductor 
coming  along.  He  was  collecting  the  tickets. 
When  he  got  to  us,  he  held  out  his  hand  for 
our  tickets.  I  had  them  in  my  hand  waiting 
for  him.  I  handed  the  tickets  to  him.  He 
lifted  his  lamp  so  that  he  could  better  see  the 
tickets,  and  after  looking  at  them  well,  ho 
said,  "You  are  on  the  wrong  train."  My  heart 
jumped  up  into  my  throat,  for  I  thought  that 
this  was  one  of  the  schemes  of  the  "city  fel- 
lows" to  rob  a  poor  green  man  from  the  coun- 
try. I  asked,  "Is  not  this  the  train  for  Chi- 
cago?" He  said,  "Yes,  it  is;"  and  before  he 
could  say  any  more,  I  blurted  out,  "Then  w^e 
are  alright,  for  we  are  going  to  Chicago." 

He  then  said,  "But  you  are  not  going  to  Chi- 
cago on  these  tickets,"  shaking  his  hand  with 
the  two  tickets  that  I  had  given  him.  I  asked, 
"What  is  the  matter  with  the  tickets?" 

He  said,  "This  train  is  the  Chicago  and  Al- 
ton train  and  your  tickets  are  by  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad,  and  are  not  good  on  this 
road."  This  piece  of  information  disturbed  me 
greatly.  I  had  not  dreamed  that  there  were  two 
railroads  going  to  Chicago,  for  down  South, 
where  I  had  come  from,  there  was  only  one. 
This  information  simply  took  away  all  the 
sense  I  had,  and  I  sat  there  in  that  train, 
dumbfounded,  crushed,  helpless  and  unable  to 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OP  MY  LIFE.  203 

say  another  word.  The  conductor  looked  at 
my  brother  and  me  in  a  pitying  sort  of  way, 
waiting  for  us  to  speak,  but  as  neither  one 
said  a  word,  he  asked,  ^'Well,  what  do  you  in- 
tend to  do?'' 

I  answered  him  like  a  little  child  about  ten 
years  old,  by  asking  another  question.  I  asked 
him  what  I  should  do?  He  said,  ^^Do  what  you 
please,  but  do  it  quick.''  I  asked  him  if  we 
got  off  his  train  and  went  back  to  St.  Louis, 
when  would  we  get  to  Chicago? 

He  said,  ^^f  it  takes  you  as  long  to  get  away 
from  St.  Louis  as  it  does  to  make  up  your  mind 
now  what  you  want  to  do,  I  do  not  think  that 
you  will  ever  get  to  Chicago." 

I  asked  him  if  I  could  pay  him  in  cash  and 
go  on  to  Chicago  on  his  train?  He  said,  "Cer- 
tainly." How  much?  "Nine  dollars  each  and 
twenty-five  cents  each,  because  you  did  not  buy 
a  ticket."  I  paid  the  money  to  him,  and  he 
passed  on,  but  the  incident,  the  worry,  the 
self  denunciation  for  my  stupidity,  kept  me 
awake  all  night. 

The  night  was  long  and  tiresome.  It  grew 
colder  and  colder  as  we  proceeded  further 
north  and  as  the  night  passed  away. 

About  3  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  fire  in 
the  stove  burned  low  and  the  frequent  opening 
of  the  car  door  to  let  the  passengers  in  and 


204        TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

out  chilled  the  atmosphere  in  the  car  more 
and  more. 

I  got  so  cold  I  thought  that  the  blood  in  my 
veins  was  turning  to  ice.  We  called  the  brake- 
man  and  asked  him  to  please  put  some  coal  on 
the  tire.  He  said,  "The  stove  is  full  of  coal 
now;  this  car  is  not  so  cold;  if  you  think  it  is 
cold,  get  out  doors  at  the  next  station  for  a 
few  minutes.'^  No  one  in  the  car  seemed  will- 
ing to  try  the  experiment.  So  we  all  sat  still 
and  shivered  the  rest  of  the  night. 

We  arrived  in  Chicago  about  7  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  When  I  got  in  the  omnibus  to  ride 
up  to  a  hotel,  I  never  felt  so  cold  in  my  life. 
I  was  dressed  in  the  same  clothes  that  I  wore 
in  North  Carolina,  my  underclothes  were  half 
cotton,  and  my  outer  garments  were  light 
weight.  I  had  on  an  extra  sack  coat  that  I 
put  on,  and  my  brother  did  the  same;  neither  of 
us  had  an  overcoat,  such  as  is  worn  by  all 
men  in  this  northern  country. 

The  omnibus  at  last  landed  us  at  Brown's 
Hotel  on  State  street.  We  got  the  name  of 
this  hotel  from  a  Chicago  man  whom  we  met 
in  St.  Louis.  When  I  got  out  of  that  omnibus 
I  was  hardly  able  to  get  into  the  hotel.  My 
jaws  were  tired  from  shivering. 

My  brother  suggested  that  we  go  into  the 
bar  and  get  a  drink  of  brandy  or  whiskey.     F 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  205 

was  so  cold  that  I  would  have  drank  anything 
suggested  in  order  to  get  warm. 

So  we  went  in  and  called  for  whiskey  cock- 
tails. I  had  drank  so  little  in  my  life  that  I 
did  not  know  what  a  whiskey  cocktail  was, 
my  brother  gave  the  order.  The  bar-keeper, 
one  of  them,  there  were  seven  behind  the  bar, 
fixed  up  the  drinks  and  pushed  them  over  to- 
ward us,  looking  at  us  with  a  benevolent  ex- 
pression of  inquiry,  which  asked  very  plainly, 
without  using  words,  "I  wonder  where  these 
srreen  ones  came  from?'' 


& 


We  paid  for  our  drinks  and  went  to  the 
hotel  office,  engaged  our  rooms  and,  after 
washing  our  faces,  we  went  to  breakfast.  By 
this  time  I  was  beginning  to  thaw  out,  and  I 
felt  real  comfortable.  My  brother  did  not  com- 
plain, neither  did  I,  but  both  of  us  realized 
that  these  experiences  were  entirely  new. 

At  the  breakfast  table  the  girl  that  waited 
on  us  brought  us  some  oatmeal,  the  first  that  1 
had  ever  seen  served  as  food  for  man.  We  ate 
it,  as  we  wanted  to  appear  as  if  we  were  used 
to  such  a  diet.  I  thought  at  the  time  that  it 
was  a  funny  time  of  the  day  to  eat  pudding, 
as  it  seemed  to  be  to  me,  after  we  had  added 
sugar  and  cream  to  it.  We  usually  ate  our 
dessert  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  and  after  we 
had  finished  eating  our  dinner,  but  here  we 
were  started  ofi"  on  dessert  the  first  thing  for 


206        TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

breakfast.  This  was  a  big  change  in  diet  for 
two  green  country  boys  from  the  backwoods 
of  North  Carolina. 

We  gradually  got  used  to  the  manner  of 
feeding  the  boarders,  and  as  w^e  were  out  can- 
vassing all  day,  every  day,  our  appetites  were 
something  enormous.  We  never  had  indiges- 
tion; no  matter  what  we  ate,  it  agTeed  with  us, 
and  we  had  no  ground  for  complaint.  We  paid 
one  dollar  per  day  for  board,  and  I  have  paid  as 
much  as  three  dollars  per  day  on  many  oc- 
casions and  did  not  get  so  good  fare  as  at 
Brown's  Hotel  at  one  dollar. 

After  we  had  finished  our  first  breakfast 
at  this  hotel,  we  went  out  to  map  out  our  work. 
We  went  into  a  stationery  store  and  bought 
a  map  of  Chicago;  with  this  map  we  could 
divide  the  territory  so  that  we  might  canvass 
the  city  intelligently  and  thoroughly.  After 
doing  this,  we  both  started  out  to  see  the 
many  doctors  in  Chicago.  There  were  about 
three  thousand  of  them  at  that  time. 

My  first  day's  experience  taught  me  many 
things. 

The  first  thing  I  learned  was  that  I  was 
not  properly  clothed,  my  clothes  were  too 
thin  for  such  cold  weather.  My  boots  were 
single  soled  and  with  thin  tops,  with  high 
heels.  Walking  on  the  hard  streets  blistered 
my  feet.    I  was  going  into  well  heated  rooms 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  207 

and  out  again  into  an  atmosphere  where  the 
thermometer  registered  fifteen  degrees  be- 
low zero.  Every  time  I  made  such  a  change,  T 
thought  the  wind  was  blowing  right  through 
me.  I  suffered  so,  I  knew  that  I  must  have 
more  clothing,  but  I  did  not  want  to  spend 
the  money  for  clothes,  for  I  was  sure  that  I 
would  need  all  that  I  had,  and  more,  too,  in 
my  business. 

So,  after  much  thought,  I  consented  to  spend 
enough  to  keep  me  from  freezing  and  to  make 
myself  presentable  when  I  went  into  a  doc- 
tor's office. 

I  went  into  a  dry  goods  store  and  bought 
three-quarters  of  a  yard  of  gray  Rock  Island 
kersey.  I  cut  a  hole  in  the  middle  of  this 
piece  of  cloth  large  enough  to  put  my  head 
through.  This  I  used  as  an  extra  shirt,  put- 
ting it  on  under  my  white  shirt.  This  put  a 
thick  cover  over  my  chest  and  over  my  back. 
I  bought  some  boots  at  a  shoe  store,  wide  and 
with  low  heels. 

I  bought  some  carbolic  acid  and  some  borax 
at  a  drug  store.  I  added  water  to  the  car- 
bolic acid  and  bathed  my  feet  at  night,  and 
dusted  the  borax  into  my  stockings  in  the 
morning.  In  this  way  I  cured  the  blisters  on 
my  feet.  The  piece  of  thick  cloth  kept  my 
body  warm,  so  I  was  comfortable. 


208       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

The  first  morning  that  my  brother,  Cullen, 
and  I  started  out  canvassing  Chicago,  the  ther- 
mometer registered  fifteen  degrees  below  zero. 
We  had  never  seen  or  felt  such  frigid  weather. 
I  noticed  that  everybody  was  in  a  hurry,  I 
could  see  many  going  along  in  a  trot.  Down 
in  North  Carolina,  where  I  was  brought  up, 
I  never  saw  so  much  energy.  I  remembered  an 
observation  made  by  a  Mr.  Richard  Freeman, 
a  drummer  from  Baltimore,  who  used  to  come 
to  our  town,  Wilson,  N.  C. 

He  asked  the  question,  "What  is  the  matter 
with  you  folks  down  here?  You  are  the  laziest 
people  that  I  ever  saw.  Why  don't  you  get  a 
move  on  3^ou  and  be  somebody?" 

These  questions  made  a  deep  impression  on 
me,  and  I  thought  of  them  long  after  Mr.  Free- 
man had  left  town.  I  knew  that  I  was  willing 
to  work,  though  I  felt  that  I  was  unable  to  do 
so.  After  much  thought,  I  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  it  was  not  laziness  in  my  case  that 
kept  me  from  work,  but  was  sickness.  I  won- 
dered why  it  was  that  the  Northern  people  had 
so  much  more  energy  than  we  people  of  the 
South.  When  I  saw  the  people  of  Chicago 
trot,  I  said,  "Oh,  yes  darn  you,  I  have  your 
secret;  I  know  where  your  energy  comes  from. 
You  have  got  to  move  or  freeze  to  death."  I 
was  as  good  a  trotter  as  any  of  them. 

One  day  I  went  to  a  doctor's  office.    I  rang 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  209 

the  door  bell,  an  Irish  servant  girl  came  to 
the  door;  after  looking  me  over  well,  she  said, 
"What  do  you  want?''  in  a  very  short  and  im- 
pertinent manner.  I  said,  in  my  sweetest 
tones,  that  "I  wished  to  see  the  doctor."  She 
snapped  out  again,  "What  do  you  want  to  see 
him  about?"  I  said,  "On  business."  She  asked 
again,  "What  kind  of  business?"  I  answered, 
"Medical  business."  She  asked  again,  "Are  you 
sick?"  I  was  warming  up  a  little,  so  I  answer- 
ed, "Yes,  I  am  sick  of  you.  When  will  the  doctor 
be  back?"  This  put  her  in  a  passion,  and  she 
answ^ered,  "I  don't  think  that  he  will  ever  be 
home  for  you."  So  I  had  to  leave  without  see- 
ing the  doctor. 

After  I  got  away  I  got  to  thinking  it  all 
over.  So  I  asked  myself  what  was  it  about  me 
that  caused  the  girl  to  talk  to  me  like  that? 
After  much  thought,  I  solved  the  problem.  I 
had  a  little  bag  in  which  I  carried  advertising 
matter  and  samples,  and  I  was  wearing  a  soft 
felt  hat,  pulled  down  well  over  my  forehead, 
and  I  had  on  a  well  worn  grey  coat  over  my 
fall  suit,  which  altogether  gave  me  the  appear- 
ance of  a  peddler,  and  I  am  sure  that  this  is 
what  she  took  me  for. 

The  next  day  I  bought  a  high  silk  hat  and 
a  black  overcoat.  I  had  my  beard  trimmed 
to  a  Yan  Dyke  style,  and  after  waiting  a  day 
or  so,  I  went  back  to  the  same  doctor's  of- 


210        TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

fice.  I  rang  the  bell  and  waited.  At  last  my 
same  girl  came.  I  changed  my  voice  some,  and 
asked  if  the  doctor  was  in.  She  did  not  rec- 
ognize me.  She  said  in  her  sweetest  voice, 
"No,  he  is  not,  but  come  right  in  and  wait  a 
few  minutes,  he  will  be  in  right  away."  So  po- 
lite, so  solicitous,  so  anxious  to  serve  the  doc- 
tor. She  took  me  for  a  rich  patient.  So  much 
for  a  silk  hat  and  a  long  black  overcoat. 

I  wore  a  silk  hat  and  stylish  clothes  as  long 
as  I  canvassed,  and  I  left  off  the  silk  hat  as 
soon  as  I  quit  the  road. 

Canvassing  is  a  business  requiring  a  special 
talent,  I  might  say,  many  special  talents.  Suc- 
cess, brilliant,  prolonged  success,  cannot  come 
to  a  canvasser  who  is  in  ill  health,  for  the 
work  is  laborious;  it  is  hard,  physical  endur- 
ance that  counts.  A  man  who  is  unable  to 
stand  on  his  feet  all  day,  walk  all  day,  and 
keep  going  every  day  is  handicapped.  So  it 
is  a  part  of  a  canvasser's  equipment  to  know 
enough  of  the  laws  of  health  and  to  be  willing 
to  obey  them  and  does  obey  them,  that  gives  to 
him  one  of  the  first  requisites  necessary  to  suc- 
cess. 

Another  very  important  part  of  a  canvass- 
er's talents  is  his  mentality.  His  mind  must 
have  had  sufficient  development  for  him  to  ex- 
press what  he  wishes  to  say  in  a  simple  way, 
but  above  all  it  must  be  intelligent  to  his 
listener. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  211 

The  ability  to  express  himself  intelligently 
is  only  a  part  of  his  mental  equipment.  He 
must  also  be  a  good  listener,  and  this  requires 
another  divine  talent,  namely,  patience. 

No  man  who  wants  to  do  all  of  the  talking  in 
his  interviews  with  men  can  succeed  as  a  can- 
vasser. It  is  a  curious  fact,  but  nevertheless 
true,  that  some  of  the  poorest  talkers  insist 
on  being  heard;  on  the  other  hand,  some  of 
the  best  talkers  are  able  to  sit  still  and  listen 
to  a  man  make  a  fool  of  himself.  This  is  a 
beautiful  exhibition  of  the  divine  talent  al- 
luded to  above. 

To  sit  still  and  listen  to  statements  made, 
that  you  know  to  be  untrue,  waiting  patiently 
for  your  time  to  speak,  and  when  your  time 
comes,  if  it  ever  comes,  you  are  ready,  and  you 
do  speak  in  a  mild,  apologetic  manner,  so  as 
not  to  offend  your  man,  you  make  your  man 
see  your  point,  so  that  you  have  accomplished 
what  you  went  to  see  Him  to  do.  Then,  in 
this  instance,  you  have  had  success.  It  is  a 
part  of  your  duty  to  help  straighten  out  all 
of  the  crooked  things  in  the  world;  but  re- 
member this,  you  cannot  straighten  out  all  the 
crooked  things  in  one  day. 

Back  of  the  divine  talent,  patience,  are  other 
divine  talents,  namely,  meeknes,  kindness  and 
gentleness,  and  I  might  add,  modesty  and  ami- 
ability.   For  a  pugnacious,  domineering,  dicta- 


212       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

torial  spirit  will  soon  meet  his  match  and  in 
the  cat-like  controversy  that  follows,  patience, 
with  all  the  beautiful  qualities  back  of  it,  are 
lost,  and  each  one  of  these  human  volcanoes 
will  go  his  way,  if  permitted  to  do  so,  thinking 
the  other  one  an  unmitigated  fool  and  a 
counterfeit. 

A  canvasser  may  have  good  health,  mental 
capacity,  using  all  wdth  skill,  so  that  his  dis- 
cernment and  judgment  are  sagaciously  ap- 
lied,  and  discreetly  speaking  or  keeping  silent, 
avoiding  all  useless  debates  on  religion  and 
politics,  so  that  a  wise  man  may  recognize  a 
kindred  spirit,  yet  these  beautiful,  essential, 
divine  and  humane  developed  qualities  alone 
are  insufficient  to  complete  all  the  qualities 
needed  to  make  a  first-class  successful  can- 
vasser. These  most  aesthetic  characters  are 
essential  and  absolutely  necessary  in  their 
place,  but  there  are  other  qualities,  more  he- 
roic, more  energetic,  more  persevering  whicii 
put  more  enthusiasm  and  life  into  the  work  of 
the  canvasser.  These  are  the  dynamos  that 
keep  one  moving  on  to  the  next  interview. 
These  give  gameness  to  the  canvasser,  so  that 
he  does  not  sit  down  and  brood  over  his  dis- 
appointment when  some  ill-bred  man,  w^hom 
he  has  tried  to  convince  and  get  him  in  line 
for  future  business,  has  snubbed  him,  ignored 
him  or  insulted  him. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  213 

All  of  these  troubles  are  sure  to  come  to  the 
canvasser.  If  the  canvasser  can  only  say  to 
himself,  *'If  I  get  one  customer  out  of  every  ten 
men,  I  see  my  fortune  is  made/'  This  thought 
is  not  intended  to  cut  short  any  interview  and 
hurry  the  canvasser  on  to  the  next  man,  but 
is  intended  as  a  consolation,  and  a  balm  to 
his  wounded  feelings. 

The  talents  that  I  have  mentioned  are  not 
all  that  are  necessary  to  make  a  successful  can- 
vasser, but  they  are  good  and  essential.  I  would 
mention  a  good  memory  as  highly  necessary 
to  the  canvasser,  for  if  the  canvasser  will  only 
remember  the  things  said  against  his  position 
as  well  as  the  things  said  in  his  favor,  it  gives 
him  time  to  find  a  convincing  as  well  as  a  re- 
spectful answer  to  all  objections  made  to  his 
views. 

A  good  canvasser  calls  up  to  mind  in  the 
evening  all  of  the  interviews  of  the  day.  He 
seeks  for  the  blunders  and  their  remedies,  he 
keeps  all  the  successful  points  of  his  position 
clear  in  his  mind,  so  that  he  can  use  them 
at  Avill.  He  studies  the  characters  of  men,  that 
he  may  win  them,  without  offending  them.  He 
studies  his  own  character  that  he  may  cut  out 
all  that  is  weak  and  offensive,  that  he  may  add 
to  it  all  that  is  discovered  to  be  strong  and  at- 
tractive. He  is  a  good  general  in  his  plan- 
ning, yet  he  is  more  than   a   soldier    in    his 


214       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

intentions,  for  the  soldier  plans  to  kill  in  order 
to  accomplish  his  purposes,  but  the  canvasser 
has  no  plans  which  include  the  killing  of  his 
fellow  man.  He  intends  and  plans  only  good 
for  his  brothers.  His  success  depends  on  the 
living  of  those  that  he  interview's,  and  not  on 
their  death.  The  longer  that  they  live  and  the 
more  of  the  canvasser's  products  are  used,  the 
greater  the  success  of  the  canvasser. 

With  some  such  thoughts  as  the  foregoing 
notes,  I  applied  myself  to  the  work  that  I  had 
to  do. 

I  made  many  blunders,  but  I  think  I  found 
them  out  as  soon,  or  sooner,  than  others. 

Sometimes  I  would  lose  my  temper  and  talk 
very  ugly;  if  an  apology  would  remedy  the  evil 
done,  I  would  quickly  make  it.  Twice  I  was  so 
insulted  I  really  wanted  to  fight,  and  invited 
my  man  out  into  the  street  for  this  purpose, 
but  in  each  instance  my  man,  though  not  hav- 
ing sense  enough  to  treat  a  stranger  with 
courtesy  did  have  sense  enough  to  keep  out  of  a 
street  fight. 

When  I  had  time  enough  to  cool  off,  I  would 
see  the  ludicrous  side  of  the  encounter,  and 
I  would  have  a  real  good  laugh  over  it.  A 
laugh  is  always  good  medicine  for  wounded 
feelings.  If  I  could  have  made  the  other  man 
laugh  I  would  not  have  been  insulted.  It  is 
the  too  serious-minded,  the  brooding  ones,  who 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  215 

get  angry  and  insult  you.  If  you  can  make  him 
laugh,  or  even  keep  him  in  a  good  humor,  you 
are  safe  from  insult  or  offensive  treatment. 
Such  an  undertaking,  to  be  applied  to  some 
men,  is  a  mighty  big  job,  but  it  is  worth  it, 
for  when  you  have  once  made  a  friend,  it  is 
much  easier  to  keep  him. 

The  qualities  essential  to  success  as  a  can- 
vasser that  I  have  enumerated,  are  but  a  small 
part  of  the  talents  really  necessary.  These 
talents  may  be  enumerated  and  described  more 
or  less  accurately,  but  the  real,  genuine  suc- 
cess is  achieved  by  the  man,  the  person,  the  in- 
dividual, back  of  these  talents.  He  being  an 
individual,  is  indescribable.  He  it  is  who  has 
the  faith  to  start  on  the  road  to  success  or 
failure.  He  it  is  who  has  the  perseverance 
to  continue  His  work  in  the  face  of  all  ob- 
stacles. He  it  is  who  cannot  be  turned  aside 
from  the  plans  made  by  himself.  He  cannot 
be  side-tracked  and  left  there  alone  inactive, 
while  the  main  part  of  the  train  is  on  the 
through  line,  moving  on  to  other  scenes  and 
pastures  green. 

He  it  is  who  believes  in  himself  and  in  his 
cause,  though  other  men  may  doubt  him  and 
deride  him.  He  it  is  "who  holds  on  when  there 
is  nothing  in  him  but  the  will  which  says"  to 
him  to  hold  on. 

He  it  is  who  trusts,  works,  hopes  and  moves 


216        TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

on,  when  others  around  him,  falters,  hesitates 
and  stands  still. 

He  it  is  who  values  all  truth  above  riches, 
above  comfort,  above  worldly  success,  above 
life,  above  death. 

^^It  is  a  pleasure  to  stand  upon  the  shore 
and  see  the  ships  tossed  upon  the  sea;  a  pleas- 
ure to  stand  in  the  window  of  a  castle  and  see 
a  battle  and  the  adventures  thereof  below;  but 
no  pleasure  is  comparable  to  standing  upon  the 
vantage  ground  of  truth''  (a  hill  not  to  be  com- 
manded, and  where  the  air  is  always  clear  and 
serene)  "and  see  the  errors,  and  wanderings, 
and  mists,  and  tempests  in  the  vale  below. 

"So  always  that  this  prospect  be  with  pity, 
and  not  with  swelling  pride.  Certainly  it  is 
heaven  upon  earth  to  have  a  man's  mind  move 
in  charity,  rest  in  Providence,  and  turn  upon 
the  poles  of  truth." 

It  is  the  honor  in  his  nature  that  prompts 
man  to  honest,  square  faithful  business  deal- 
ings. A  falsehood  mixed  with  truth  may  make 
it  apparently  work  better,  like  alloy  in  gold, 
but  it  is  not  so  valuable  when  so  debased. 
There  is  no  vice  that  will  so  humiliate  and 
cover  with  shame  a  man  who  thinks,  acts  and 
lives  a  lie.  Falsehood  can  live  only  in  the  dark, 
light  and  truth  will  come  again  and  destroy  it. 

In  trying  to  give  to  you  my  ideas  of  what  a 
canvasser  ought  to  be,  and  is  to  some  extent, 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  217 

you  may  note  that  his  character .  has  grown 
from  an  ordinary  solicitor,  one  who  asks  favors 
of  the  public,  to  one  whose  life  and  purposes 
include  the  good  of  others  as  well  as  himself. 
Being  good  himself  in  his  own  life,  he  is  in- 
clined to  be  good  to  others.  Of  all  the  vir- 
tues and  beauties  of  the  mind,  goodness  is  the 
most  like  my  conception  of  God.  Without  it, 
or  some  manifestations  of  it,  man  is  but  a  poor 
apology  of  what  he  ought  to  be.  Man  may  be 
deceived  about  the  power  that  he  possesses, 
and  fail  when  he  attempts  to  apply  it,  he  may 
be  proud  and  puffed  up  with  what  he  knows 
more  than  others,  but  there  can  be  no  excuse 
of  goodness  or  charity.  This  goodness  that  I 
allude  to  is  something  very  much  alive,  it  is  not 
that  goodness,  where  the  man  is  "so  good  that 
he  is  good  for  nothing." 

One  may  be  good  in  a  negative  way,  I  mean 
to  say,  inoffensive,  and  become  the  prey  of 
those  who  are  "tyrannical  and  unjust."  The 
purpose  of  goodness  should  not  be  to  destroy 
the  source  of  it.  We  should  seek  to  do  good 
to  other  men,  but  there  is  no  valid  reason  why 
we  should  become  victims  to  their  capricious 
injustice. 

Pearls  are  of  little  service  to  swine,  nor  is 
a  diamond  food  for  a  chicken  in  the  barnyard. 
Corn  would  be  more  appreciated  by  either. 

It  is  true  that  God  sends  "His  rains  upon 


218       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

the  just  and  unjust"  alike;  but  it  is  not  true 
that  He  gives  virtue,  goodness,  wealth  and 
honor  to  all  men  equally.  These  special  bene- 
fits can  only  be  attained  by  the  effort  of  the 
man  who  achieves  them,  the  talent  or  capacity 
to  do  so  being  a  gift  of  God. 

This  goodness  shows  itself  in  various  ways. 
It  is  courteous  to  strangers,  recognizing  him 
as  a  brother.  It  is  compassionate  toward 
those  in  affliction.  It  forgives  offenses.  It  is 
above  injuries.  It  is  ever  grateful  to  God 
for  all  benefits  received.  It  values  men's 
friendships  and  their  minds  above  their  money 
and  other  property.  It  is  willing,  and  often 
does  give  up  its  all  for  the  good  of  others, 
and  this  is  from  the  divine  life  within. 

My  brother  and  I  stuck  to  our  self  imposed 
tasks.  He  was  not  so  adjustable  as  I  was,  and 
was  not  so  successful  as  a  canvasser,  but  he 
made  a  good  canvasser,  and  our  trip  to  all 
the  cities  of  the  United  States  with  more  than 
ten  thousand  population,  started  up  a  good 
trade  on  our  goods.  We  made  new  customers 
everywhere  that  we  went. 

The  first  year  (1876)  that  we  went  out  can- 
vassing we  visited  only  the  largest  cities.  We 
went  from  Chicago  to  Milwaukee,  Detroit, 
Cleveland,  Buffalo,  Syracuse,  Rochester,  Erie, 
Pa.,  Albany,  New  York  City,  Boston,  Philadel- 
phia,  Baltimore,  Washington,   D.   C,   Harris- 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  219 

burg,  Pittsburg,  Columbus,  Indianapolis,  Cin- 
cinnati, Louisville,  Evansville,  Frankfort, 
Nashville,  Memphis,  Atlanta,  Montgomery, 
New  Orleans,  Little  Rock,  Ark.,  Kansas  City, 
Omaha,  Des  Moines,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis, 
Duluth,  Lincoln,  Denver,  Sacramento,  San 
Francisco  and  Los  Angeles. 

After  this  we  canvassed  all  the  good  towns 
in  all  the  Central  and  Eastern  States,  and 
later  w^e  sent  other  canvassers  through  the 
Southern  States  and  Western  States. 

As  the  years  passed  by  our  business  grew, 
by  careful  expenditure  of  funds  in  advertising 
we  kept  growing. 

We  worked  and  canvassed,  putting  out 
samples  as  gifts  to  the  physicians,  with  liter- 
ature describing  what  the  remedy  was  intend- 
ed to  be,  and  what  it  was  intended  to  do.  In 
six  months  we  were  selling  goods  in  gross 
lots.  In  one  year  we  were  making  a  little 
money. 


220       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 


SUCCESS,  BUT  NOT  COMPLETE. 

In  1884  we  opened  up  a  business  in  Eng- 
land and  France,  sending  over  there  Mr.  Rich- 
ard E.  Blount,  of  Wilson,  N.  C,  who  had  been 
our  laboratory  man  for  some  years.  Our  busi- 
ness prospered  there  also. 

In  1890  we  extended  our  business  into  Ger- 
many, Switzerland,  Spain,  Italy,  Denmark, 
Sweden  and  Holland  and  these  branches  also 
prospered. 

In  the  same  year  we  established  our  agency 
in  Canada  and  later  in  Mexico  and  Brazil. 

In  1908,  we  started  business  in  India,  Japan 
and  China,  and  all  these  agencies  are  growing. 
So  if  the  business  that  I  have  given  my  life 
to,  is  properly  cared  for  after  I  am  dead,  my 
one  daughter  will  never  lack  for  bread  and 
my  two  grandchildren  will  have  plenty. 

My  wife  came  out  to  St.  Louis  first  in  May, 
1878.  Our  daughter,  Helen,  was  then  going 
on  three  months  old.  Miss  Frances  Wood  came 
with  us  as  cook  and  companion.  We  made  our 
first  home  at  1338  North  Jefferson  avenue.  We 
paid  twnty-tw^o  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per 
month  rent.  In  1880  we  moved  to  3034  Easton 
avenue,  rent  $50.00  per  month. 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  221 

In  1882  Mrs.  Lee  came  out  to  visit  us.  telie 
was  well  pleased  with  what  I  had  done,  and 
also  pleased  to  know  that  we  lived  so  well. 

She  said  that  it  was  reported  down  in  North 
Carolina  that  I  was  in  the  saloon  business  and 
she  was  glad  to  learn  that  it  was  not  true. 

The  same  year  we  moved  to  2819  Locust 
street  in  a  large  commodious  house.  The  rent 
of  this  house  was  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  dollars  per  month. 

We  lived  there  one  year.  We  had  a  nice 
stable  and  a  brougham  and  a  buggy  and  two 
pair  of  horses  and  went  driving  every  after- 
noon. 

One  day  w^e  were  driving  out  on  Marcus  ave- 
nue and  saw  a  very  pretty  old  rock  house 
with  about  three  acres  around  it. 

My  wife  said,  "How  I  would  like  to  live 
there;  it  would  be  so  fine  for  Nell,''  as  we  called 
our  daughter.  I  took  the  name  of  the  real 
estate  men  who  had  it  for  rent.  He  surprised 
me  when  he  said  the  rent  was  thirty-five  dol- 
lars per  month  if  I  would  lease  it  for  three 
years.  I  reported  on  it  and  my  wife  said,  "Go 
and  get  it  before  some  one  else  does.'' 

So  I  leased  it  for  three  years. 

My  brother-in-law,  Kev.  Dr.  Joseph  H.  Foy, 
with  my  sister,  Katie,  with  two  daughters  and 
my  mother,  came  to  St.  Louis  in  1877. 


222        TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

As  soon  as  my  wife  came  out  in  1878,  my 
mother  came  to  live  with  me.  We  w^ere  all 
very  happy  together,  but  in  1883,  my  brother 
Cullen,  w^ho  w^as  then  a  bachelor,  rented  a 
house  at  3008  Locust  street  and  invited  my 
sister,  Mrs.  Jos.  H.  Foy,  and  mother  to  live 
with  him. 

After  they  left  us,  we  no  longer  needed  such 
a  big  house  as  2819  Locust  street  and  this  is 
w^hy  my  wife  wanted  a  smaller  house,  and  the 
big  yard  for  our  daughter  to  play  in.  We  lived 
on  Marcus  avenue  for  eighteen  months.  My 
poor  wife  was  stricken  w4th  pelvic  celulitis, 
which  was  very  painful.  Our  family  doctor, 
Larew,  had  so  much  work  for  his  horse  to  do 
that  his  horse  was  hardly  able  to  stand  these 
long  trips  in  addition  to  all  his  city  work.  So 
I  volunteered  to  furnish  him  an  extra  horse 
for  this  purpose,  which  Dr.  Larew  accepted. 
For  three  months  my  wife  suffered,  remain- 
ing in  bed  all  the  time  and  being  given  mor- 
phine every  day  to  relieve  her  intense  suffer- 
ing. At  the  end  of  three  months  my  wife  was 
still  in  a  critical  condition  and  suffering. 

One  day  Dr.  Larew  called  me  aside  as  he 
went  out  and  told  me  that  my  wife  was  not 
improving  and  if  I  wanted  another  doctor  in 
consultation,  I  might  call  one  in.  He  said, 
"I  have  done  all  that  I  know  how  to  do;  and 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  223 

I  would  rather  have  another  doctor  to  share 
the  responsibility."  I  asked  him  did  he  know 
another  doctor  that  he  thought  knew  more 
about  such  a  case  than  he  did.  He  said  there 
was  a  Dr.  Barrett  who  had  a  great  reputation 
in  such  cases,  and  he  thought  Dr.  Barrett'^ 
advice  would  be  worth  having.  So  the  next 
dav  he  brought  Dr.  Barrett  out'  with  him. 

Dr.  Barrett  took  right  hold  of  the  case 
and  after  making  a  thorough  examination 
called  Dr.  Larew  and  myself  into  the 
other  room.  I  report  what  he  said  from  mem- 
ory. He  said,  "Mr.  Battle,  as  you  are  in  the 
medical  line,  I  treat  you  as  a  doctor." 

He  turned  to  Dr.  Larew  and  said,  "You  have 
treated  the  case  so  far  very  well,  the  pelvic 
celulitis  has  subsided,  but  your  patient  is  run 
down  and  a  nervous  wreck;  get  her  out  of  bed 
as  soon  as  you  can,  for  when  you  have  had  as 
many  patients  as  I  have  had  go  to  bed  and 
stay  there,  you  will  know  the  value  of  this 
advice. 

"Stop  the  morphine  as  soon  as  possible.  You 
will  have  lots  of  trouble  and  lots  of  tears,  but 
stop  it.  There  are  two  ways,  one  is  to  reduce 
the  dose  every  day  until  you  get  the  dose  down 
to  one-thirty-second  of  a  grain  a  day;  this  is 
simply  prolonging  the  misery,  like  cutting  off 
the  monkey's  tail  one  inch  at  a  time. 


224        TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

"The  second  plan  is  to  cut  off  at  once.  I  be- 
lieve there  is  less  suffering  this  way.  The 
agony  is  more  acute  for  a  few  days,  but  the 
patient  gets  over  it  quicker.  You,  doctor,  must 
be  the  judge. 

"One  more  piece  of  advice,  and  I  am  through. 

"Mrs.  Battle  is  very  weak  and  growing  weak- 
er every  day  for  lack  of  exercise.  She  is  now 
too  weak  to  take  exercise.  You  must  give  her 
exercise,  passive  exercise,  give  her  massages, 
either  get  somebody  w^ho  understands  it  or  do 
it  yourself."  I  asked  him  to  show  me  what  he 
meant. 

He  said,  "Pull  off  your  coat  and  vest  and 
get  on  the  bed  with  your  patient  and  begin 
with  the  left  arm,  take  her  hand  in  your  left 
hand  and  with  your  right  hand  pass  from  her 
shoulder  with  a  slight  pressure  on  the  naked 
skin  toward  her  hand.  Repeat  this  until  you 
see  a  little  pink  color  come  into  the  arm.  Cover 
every  side  of  her  left  arm  with  your  chaffing. 

"Second,  open  and  shut  her  left  hand  many 
times,  pulling  gently  the  fingers,  like  milking 
a  cow. 

"Third,  start  at  the  left  shoulder  with  your 
left  hand  under  her  arm  and  the  right  above, 
now  roll  the  muscles  on  the  bone,  not  hard 
enough  to  give  pain,  but  enough  to  make  it 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  225 

uncomfortable.     This  stirs  up  the  circulation 
of  the  blood  deeper  than  the  surface  chafing. 

"Fourth,  do  the  same  with  the  right  arm  and 
both  of  the  legs.  It  is  harder  work  on  the 
legs,  for  they  are  larger;  let  the  process  ex- 
tend to  the  body  in  every  instance. 

"Fifth,  let  your  patient  lie  on  her  stomach. 
You  begin  at  the  neck.  After  kneading  this 
with  enough  pressure  to  feel  the  bones  in  the 
neck,  you  may  proceed  down  the  spinal  cord, 
follow  the  vertebrae  down  the  spine,  kneading, 
and  with  a  strong  pressure  pushing  your  hands, 
the  balls  of  your  thumbs  away  from  the  spine. 
This  helps  the  circulation  all  up  and  down  the 
back.  A  warning  I  give  you,  don't  be  in  a 
hurry,  don't  puff  and  blow  like  it  was  hard 
work.  Don't  get  to  sweating  too  much.  Take 
your  time.  Don't  wear  out  your  patient,  put 
five  minutes  on  each  limb  twice  a  day  to  be 
gin  with,  the  same  time  may  be  spent  on  the 
neck  and  back.  Gradually  increase  the  time 
you  spend  on  each  limb,  the  neck  and  back  till 
you  are  putting  in  fifteen  minutes  on  each  one. 
This  would  make  one  hour  and  a  half.  You 
should  reach  this  maximum  in  two  weeks,  by 
that  time  your  patient  will  be  strong  enough 
to  get  up  and  walk  and  also  recovered  to  some 
extent  from  the  morphine." 


226       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

He  said  further,  ^'It  will  be  at  least  six 
weeks  before  she  will  get  off  the  morphine  so 
that  she  will  not  miss  if 

He  said,  ''The  breast  and  belly  should  be 
kneaded  to  complete  the  treatment,  but  as 
Mrs.  Battle  had  been  so  sore,  these  parts  must 
be  omitted   from  the  treatment." 

I  quit  business  and  stayed  home,  devoting  my 
time  to  my  wife.  I  became  the  masseur.  I 
did  as  near  as  the  doctor  had  told  me  as  I 
could.  I  gave  the  exercise  midly  and  patiently 
at  first,  and  as  my  wife  grew  stronger,  I  in- 
creased the  pressure  and  lengthened  the  time. 
My  wife  grew  stronger  and  stronger  each  day, 
but  cutting  off  the  morphine  made  her  so  nerv- 
ous and  filled  her  so  full  of  aches  and  pains 
that  she  wished  that  she  w^ere  dead.  She 
could  not  sleep  one  minute  night  or  day,  at  last 
from  pure  exhaustion  she  w^ould  doze  a  few 
minutes  at  the  time.  She  w^ould  throw  her 
arms  and  hands  up  against  the  head  board  of 
the  bed  until  they  had  many  bruises.  She 
would  throw  her  legs  against  the  wall  and 
bruise  them.  So  I  padded  the  head  of  the  bed 
with  pillows  and  pulled  the  bed  from  the  wall. 
My  wife  was  delirious  off  and  on  for  three 
weeks,  but  at  last,  with  lots  of  patience  and 
perseverance,  we  were  rewarded  by  seeing  our 
dear  patient  come  back  to  the  world  of  good 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  227 

sense  and  show  decided  signs  of  increased 
strength  and  appetite.  Without  any  assist- 
ance she  got  out  of  bed  and  walked  across  the 
room.  It  is  certainly  amazing  what  wonder- 
ful recuperating  powers  can  be  and  are  given 
to  another  by  and  through  what  we  call  mas- 
sage. If  you,  reader,  have  an  invalid,  do  what 
I  have  told  you  that  I  did,  and  watch  the  re- 
sults.    You  will  be  astonished. 

At  last  my  wife  was  well  and  strong  again 
but  she  said,  "I  have  enough  of  the  country, 
let  us  move  back  to  town  again.'^  So  we  look- 
ed for  a  man  to  sublease  our  house  to,  found 
him,  and  in  one  more  month  we  were  settled 
at  3034  Lucas  avenue.  We  lived  at  this  place 
for  a  part  of  1885  and  all  of  1886. 

My  sister,  Mrs.  Foy,  moved  to  Omaha,  Neb., 
and  my  mother  came  back  to  live  with  me. 

Just  before  Christmas,  1886,  I  bought  the 
house  numbered  2813  Lucas  avenue,  and  moved 
into  it  at  once. 

My  poor  mother  did  not  live  long  to  enjoy 
our  own  new  home.  She  was  taken  with  pneu- 
monia and  died  in  a  few  days  on  January  4, 
1887.  It  is  a  curious  thing  to  note  that  her 
own  sister,  Henrietta,  died  in  Wake  Forest, 
N.  C,  just  three  days  before  my  mother.  So 
these  two  dear  sisters  who  were  so  devoted  to 


228       TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

each  other,  and  had  been  separated  so  long, 
were  joined  together  through  death  without 
either  one  knowing  that  the  other  was  sick. 

A  letter  came  announcing  the  death  of  my 
Aunt  Henrietta,  but  my  mother  was  too  far 
gone  for  us  to  give  her  the  news. 

We  lived  at  this  house  until  1896,  w^hen  we 
traded  it  off  for  our  present  home  at  4463  Lin- 
dell  Boulevard.  This  has  been  our  home  for 
almost  fifeen  years.  It  is  here  that  we  have 
had  our  greatest  joys  and  our  greatest  sor- 
rows; the  brightest  days  and  the  blackest 
nights.  It  is  here  our  lovely  daughter,  after 
graduating  at  the  Reed  School  in  New  York, 
and  a  trip  to  Europe  with  her  mother  and 
I,  came  back  to  this  new,  elegant  home,  to 
gather  around  her  a  number  of  friends  to  make 
her  life  a  round  of  pleasures  and  joys;  it  was 
here  she  met  her  future  husband.  It  was  here 
her  two  children  were  born.  It  was  here  that 
she  spent  so  many  weary  days,  when  she  was 
confined  to  her  bed  as  an  invalid,  and  could 
hardly  stand  on  her  feet  for  a  few  minutes  at 
a  time. 

It  was  here  that  she  came  back  to  health  and 
strength  again. 

It  is  here  that  my  dear  wife  and  I  have  had 
our  greatest  luxuries;  where  we  have  had  all 
that  wealth  could  give  us.    It  is  here  that  we 


AND  SOME  STORIES  OF  MY  LIFE.  229 

have  entertained  our  many  friends  and  rela- 
tives, giving  to  them  without  stint  all  the 
pleasures  of  a  city  life.  It  is  here  that  we  have 
seen  four  Presidents  pass  our  door,  Mr.  Cleve- 
land, Mr.  McKinley,  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Mr. 
Taft. 

It  is  here  that  we  saw  all  the  parades  dur- 
ing the  World's  Fair  in  1903  and  1904.. 

It  was  here  in  our  block  that  we  saw  the 
greatest-  gathering  of  Roman  Catholic  Card- 
inals, Archbishops,  Bishops,  Prelates  and  Lay- 
men that  has  probably  ever  been  gotten  to- 
gether in  America.  The  occasion  was  the  lay 
ing  of  the  corner  stone  of  the  three-million-dol- 
lar cathedral  on  the  eastern  corner  of  the 
block. 

It  was  from  this  house  that  my  poor  broth- 
er, Cullen,  was  buried. 

It  may  be  from  this  house  that  my  wife  and 
I  will  take  our  last  ride  on  earth. 

And,  may  we  "so  live  that  when  our  sum- 
mons comes  to  join  that  innumerable  caravan 
which  moves  to  that  mysterious  realm  where 
each  one  shall  take  his  chamber  in  the  silent 
halls  of  death,  that  we  will  go,  not  like  the 
quarry-slave  at  night  scourged  to  his  dungeon, 
but  sustained  and  soothed  by  an  unfaltering 
trust,  we  will  approach  our  graves  like  one 
who  wraps  the  drapery  of  his  couch  about  him 
and  lies  down  to  pleasant  dreams.'' 


230        TRIBUTES  TO  MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

If  my  success  has  given  to  me  a  life,  "well 
lived,  filled  with  joy  and  love,  if  I  have  had 
the  trust  of  pure  women  and  the  love  of  lit- 
tle children,"  if  I  have  finished  the  task  my 
God  has  assigned  to  me  and  "filled  my  niche'' 
and  accomplished  the  good  that  I  purposed  to 
do;  if  I  "have  looked  for  the  best  in  others  and 
gave  the  best  that  I  had,  whether  in  an  im- 
proved poppy,  a  perfect  poem  or  a  rescued  soul;" 
if  I  have  never  failed  to  appreciate  earth's 
beauty,  nor  failed  to  express  it,  if  my  "life  has 
been  an  inspiration"  to  others,  and  "my  mem- 
ory shall  be  a  benediction"  to  those  who  come 
after  me;  then  I  shall  not  have  lived  in  vain. 

With  love  to  God,  the  Father,  and  love  to 
all  His  Sons,  and  love  to  His  Holy  Spirit,  and 
love  to  all  of  His  creatures, 

I  am,  your  obedient  servant, 

JESSE  MERCER  BATTLE. 


fHiS  IITLE  H4S  BEEN  MICROFILMED 

This  book  must  r 
be  taken  from  tl 
Library  building. 


A 


Form  No.  471 


